What is the Element Ruthenium?
to find out a little bit more about these mystery elements, and I started with Ruthenium. Ruthenium sounds funny at first, but it is used in many things around the world. Ruthenium is a white metal that is hard and polyvalent. Ruthenium is part of the platinum family. This metal has four crystal modifications, and at normal temperatures it will not tarnish. Although Ruthenium does not tarnish it does oxidize. Ruthenium will melt if put into fused alkalis, and Ruthenium is not affected by acids but is strongly affected by high temperature halogens. Some jewelers and metal workers use ruthenium to increase the hardness of platinum, and it also has a hardening affect when added to palladium. Titanium can also be mixed with a tiny amount of ruthenium to prevent corrosion and tarnish. Sometimes ruthenium is even mixed with gold to increase its wear resistance. Karl Klaus, the Russian scientist, isolated and discover ruthenium in 1844. This element derived its name from Ruthenia which is a L
