Discovery of palladium

Palladium was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston in London, during his work on refining platinum. He found that crude platinum contained a new metal, which he named after the asteroid Pallas, discovered in 1802 by Heinrich Olbers. Instead of announcing it openly, Wollaston first offered it for sale anonymously as a new silver, and this led to a dispute with the chemist Richard Chenevix, who thought it was a mere alloy until Wollaston proved otherwise. Palladium is a rare silvery-white metal that can absorb large volumes of hydrogen. Its main use today is in the catalytic converters of petrol cars, which turn harmful exhaust gases into less harmful ones, and it is also used in electronics, dentistry and jewellery.

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