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Platinum

Key Data and Description

History

Geological Information

Crystallography

Reactions of Platinum

Platinum Compounds

Uses

Platinum Market

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Abundances

In the table below, values of the amount of platinum around us are given in units of ppb (parts per billion; 1 billion = 10⁹), both in terms of weight and in terms of number of atoms; the uncertainty in these values is large.

Platinum is found as the free element, usually mixed with other elements.  Platiniridium is a naturally occurring platinum/iridium alloy.  Platinum is also found in ores such as sperrylite (platinum arsenide, PtAs₂) and cooperite (platinum sulphide, PtS).

¹Information source from P.A. Cox in The Elements : Their Origin, Abundance, and Distribution, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1989.