The Uses Of Platinum

Apart from making platinum coins and jewelry, platinum has multiple other uses today. First, unlike silver, platinum jewelry resists tarnish. The primary industrial application of platinum is in manufacturing catalytic converters for automobile engines. Platinum is efficient in turning toxic engine emissions into less-harmful waste. The oil industry extracts gasoline from crude oil using platinum's catalytic properties. But the uses of platinum go well beyond this. Here, we examine some unique uses of platinum.

Treating Cancer

Platinum, in some chemical forms, can delay or stop the division of live cells. As a result, a variety of tumors have been treated with drugs based on platinum. Researchers first identified cisplatin as a platinum-based chemotherapy medication, and forty years later, it remains in use to treat some cancers. Since then, researchers have been exploring ways to make platinum-based medicines more effective at fighting cancers while both less toxic and more tolerant to sensitivity.

Vehicle Safety

Automotive airbags are coated with platinum-cured silicones to shield them from their explosive mechanisms. The platinum coating ensures that these airbags are stable and can be folded and packed for a long period without deteriorating. In addition, the airbags have an initiator sensor, which employs a fine platinum wire coated with explosive material to trigger the airbag.

Personal Hygiene

Platinum-cured silicone substances are found in a variety of personal care items, including lipsticks, shampoos, and contact lenses. Additionally, the future is looking quite promising for the usage of silicones in medical elastomers. They have exceptional wound healing properties in that they hold onto dry skin while not attaching to and causing damage to the fluid-filled wound. Furthermore, since silicones are air and moisture permeable, the healing process gets accelerated.

Autocatalysts

Platinum performs as an efficient and long-lasting catalyst in hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). This is one of the most important uses of platinum. All FCEVs use a form of fuel cell called Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM). The FCEV itself discharges only water from its tailpipe and is powered by a low-temperature, quick-start cell that uses platinum and palladium at its core.

Warmth and Comfort

Warmth and comfort are usually the last things one would think of while considering the uses of any metallic substance. However, petrochemical feedstocks—the basic raw ingredients needed for manufacturing plastics, synthetic rubber, and the polyester fibers used to make textiles and blankets—and synthetic rubber are all produced using platinum catalysts.

Fuel Cell Mini-grid Electrification Technology

Compared to diesel generators, platinum-based fuel cells are more affordable, cleaner, and more reliable. More than one million of the two million South African homes without power live in rural regions, and it is these fuel cells that are making a significant difference in these places. In these remote areas, fuel cell mini-grid electrification technology is an advantageous and affordable solution for grid electrification that might speed up the power supply.