Precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium are turning out to be invaluable allies in our journey toward clean energy. From efficient electricity transmission to emission reduction and hydrogen purification, these metals are at the forefront of innovative technologies, shaping the landscape of renewable energy and as we work toward a more sustainable future.

Gold: The High-Tech Conductor

While known for its aesthetics and monetary value, is perhaps lesser known that gold has a pivotal role in the realm of clean energy, specifically in the electronics of renewable energy systems. Its impressive conductivity makes it ideal for efficient energy transmission, particularly in photovoltaic solar cells. The thin gold film in these cells facilitates the efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity, an innovation that’s helping to power our increasingly green world. As our dependency on renewable energy sources grows, gold’s importance in these systems is poised to rise. Researchers are also exploring its potential in other cutting-edge areas, like quantum computing, which could revolutionize the way we process and store renewable energy data.

Silver: The Solar Energy Stalwart

Silver currently has the largest presence and use cases in the solar industry, thanks to its superior electrical and thermal conductivity. It forms the backbone of photovoltaic solar cells, where it is used in the form of a paste that forms the cell’s conductive layers. This silver paste plays a key role in the cell’s ability to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity. Currently, around 10% of the global silver supply is dedicated to the solar industry. The race is now on to find ways to use silver more efficiently or enhance its performance, promising a shining future for this precious metal in clean energy.

Platinum: The Fuel Cell Catalyst

The power of platinum in the clean energy industry lies in its role as a catalyst in fuel cells, especially those powering hydrogen cars. Fuel cells work by facilitating a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, and platinum’s unique properties help speed up this reaction to produce electricity, heat, and water – the only byproduct. While the high cost of platinum presents a challenge, ongoing research is aimed at minimizing the amount needed in these cells. Future applications may extend to large-scale energy systems, like stationary power plants, further expanding platinum’s footprint in clean energy.

Rhodium: The Emission Combatant

Though it’s one of the rarest metals on earth, rhodium has a significant impact on clean energy. Its main role is in automotive catalytic converters, where it helps to reduce harmful emissions by converting them into less harmful substances. As emissions regulations become stricter and hybrid vehicles more common, the demand for rhodium is expected to surge.

In the future, scientists could harness rhodium’s catalytic properties for other applications, such as converting CO2 back into fuel, providing an interesting bridge between fossil fuels and a clean energy future.

Palladium: The Hydrogen Purifier

Palladium may be best known for its role in jewelry, but it’s also making waves in clean energy, primarily through hydrogen purification. This precious metal has the unique ability to absorb a large volume of hydrogen, which can then be easily released, making it an excellent choice for extracting pure hydrogen for use in fuel cells. As the world increasingly turns to hydrogen as a clean energy source, the role of palladium is expected to grow. Additionally, its potential in advanced battery technology could further cement its place in our clean energy future.

What the Future of Clean Energy & Precious Metals Has in Store

As we continue to advance into the clean energy revolution, it’s clear that our path toward sustainability is shining with precious metals. Gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium have assumed new significance in their unique roles within the clean energy industry. Their contributions range from efficient energy transmission to reducing harmful emissions and advancing hydrogen-based technologies. The future of these metals is not only glistening but also green, promising to play an increasingly central role in our journey towards a sustainable and clean energy-driven world.

While challenges in cost and efficiency persist, the innovative applications of these precious resources underscore their invaluable contribution to a green, sustainable future.

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Let’s find out what palladium is and whether you should consider investing in it in 2021.

What Is Palladium?

Palladium is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal. It was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston, who coincidentally also found rhodium around the same time.

This precious metal is typically found in South Africa and Russia, with a few deposits located in Canada and the U.S. Only a handful of companies manage the production of palladium globally.

The demand for palladium mostly comes from its use in the automotive industry as a material for building catalytic converters, which are exhaust emission control devices that minimize pollution from cars.

Factors Impacting the Price of Palladium

For anyone giving consideration to investing in palladium, it’s important to consider the following factors driving palladium prices.

1. Supply Problems: The supply deficit for palladium is likely to support higher prices in the future. Russia, a top provider of platinum group metals, is currently experiencing production problems that could significantly contribute to supply narrowness for palladium for the foreseeable future.
2. Automotive Industry Demand: One of the most important factors to keep an eye on is automotive production. Continued demand for vehicles will keep palladium’s value stable or on the rise. This is due to its use in catalytic converters and the fact that it might substitute platinum in converters soon.
3. The Strength Of The US Dollar – A weakening of the dollar could have an impact on palladium prices and precious metals in general. Palladium is usually purchased from suppliers in US dollars. Any devaluing of the dollar could potentially disincentivize top suppliers, which could lead to palladium supply problems and cause a price increase.

Should You Invest In Palladium?

Whether or not you should invest in palladium depends on your investment style. If you’re looking to diversify your portfolio, palladium is very similar to rhodium in that its price volatility could benefit you. However, if you’re not able to take on risks and withstand the volatility of palladium, you should reconsider investing.

If you have any palladium scrap, now is a great time to convert to cash. Be sure to consider exchanging your lot with a precious metals refiner like Manhattan Gold & Silver. We offer quick and fair payouts, ensuring you are getting the best possible deal.

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We’ve compiled facts about the PGM family below so you can get to know their various uses and properties.

The post What Are Platinum Group Metals (PGMs)? appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

We’ll show you how to find palladium scrap to recycle. But first we’ll give a brief explanation of what palladium is and its history.

What Is Palladium?

If you’ve confused palladium for platinum in the past, no one could blame you. Palladium is like platinum in appearance due to its silvery-white color. It is also one of the six elements in the platinum group metals (PGMs), which includes:

• Platinum
• Rhodium
• Ruthenium
• Osmium
• Iridium

Palladium was discovered in 1802 by the British scientist William Hyde Wollaston. His scientific colleagues at the time questioned his discovery, claiming palladium was an alloy of platinum and mercury. It took several years for his new metal to be recognized and listed on the elemental table with the Pd symbol and an atomic number of 46.

Palladium is sourced from parts of South Africa, Russia, Canada and the United States. Although it is very rare, you can still find palladium in various recyclable items.

Where You Can Find Palladium Scrap

You can find palladium scrap in many different items. A couple places to look include:

• Palladium alloys used for manufacturing: Look out for palladium sponges, palladium flakes, palladium sputter and sputtering targets
• Palladium jewelry items: This can include rings, chains, bracelets, jewelry scrap
• Palladium catalysts: Palladium can be found in automotive catalysts, industrial catalysts, palladium foil catalysts, petroleum refining catalysts
• Palladium resins: These are chemicals used in manufacturing processes
• Palladium plated items: Look for palladium in jewelry and decorative products
• Dental palladium: Nearly 1 million ounces of palladium are used every year in dental applications. Much of the dental palladium we work with is combined with other metals like gold, but we can easily separate them.

Selling Your Palladium Scrap

With palladium trading at +$2,000 per ounce, now is a good time to start thinking about recycling your palladium products. Consider selling your palladium scrap precious metal refiner like Manhattan Gold & Silver – our refining process is 100 percent transparent, and we offer the quickest and most accurate payments.

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Jewelry experts think of palladium as an alternative to gold or platinum. Its uses, however, are far more diverse. The most common industrial use for palladium is in catalytic converters for cars. Catalytic converters contain catalysts that convert toxic substances in engine exhaust into inert or less toxic substances. This, in turn, produces a cleaner exhaust that conforms to EPA standards.

You can see why palladium’s catalytic properties make it so invaluable to the automotive industry. According to a report from the New York Times, more than 80 percent of palladium is used for catalytic converters.

But that’s not the only thing that makes this metal so valuable.

What Is Palladium?

Palladium is a silvery-white metal that is mined in parts of Russia, South Africa, Canada and the United States. Its extraction is actually an offshoot of the production of other metals, like platinum or nickel.

Palladium is one of six elements in the platinum group metals (PGMs), along with platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium. These PGMs are valued for their catalytic properties, or being able to speed up chemical reactions.

According to U.S. Geological Survey, most PMGs are found in ore deposits formed by the cooling of magma. All six PMGs combined make up only 0.0005 parts per million of Earth’s crust.

Palladium’s Characteristics

We already know about palladium’s excellent catalytic properties. But what are some of the transitional metal’s other characteristics?

It’s bendy. Like gold, palladium is malleable and ductile and can be beaten into a thin leaf.

It’s high-temperature-resistant. Palladium has the lowest melting point of all the PMGs. It melts at 2,831 degrees Fahrenheit. The melting point of gold, by comparison, is 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s super absorbent. Palladium can absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. Because of this ability, palladium is used to store and filter hydrogen.

Palladium’s Other Applications

While the majority of palladium ends up in cars’ exhaust systems, it is also used in jewelry, electronics and dentistry.

Because of its naturally white color, palladium is often used as an alternative to platinum for making white gold jewelry. It’s also much lighter than platinum, and more malleable, like gold, and won’t cause allergic reactions.

Another application for palladium is in electronics in the production of ceramic capacitors found in laptops and smartphones. Ceramic capacitors consist of layers of palladium inserted between layers of ceramic.

Palladium has been used in the dental industry since the late 1970s. Palladium is tarnish and corrosion resistant, which makes it suitable for dental crown and bridge alloys. Palladium is even used in certain kinds of dental amalgams to increase durability and improve the luster of the restoration work.

The increasing demand for palladium has made it one of the most valuable of the four major precious metals: gold, silver and platinum. That’s because the amount of palladium produced is expected to fall short of demand in 2019–for an eighth year in a row.

Create Your Own Palladium Chart

Our monthly palladium price chart is updated twice daily with prices based on market fixings published by the London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM). Use our palladium chart to see current and historical palladium prices or to create your own chart.

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While not unprecedented, it’s still pretty unusual for palladium prices to outperform gold. There are several factors that could be influencing this trend. For instance, more than 80% of the world’s palladium is used in catalytic converters to help vehicles reduce their output of pollutants. Antipollution legislation gained traction in several countries around the world last year, which likely had an indirect impact on palladium demand via the automobile industry. Similarly, mining companies dealing with labor disputes or global trade (re)negotiations may be affecting the global supply of palladium in a way that doesn’t keep pace with the growing demand – affecting prices even further.  

It’s anyone’s guess as to how long this trend will last. To stay in the loop, try our precious metals price tracking app.

The post What’s up with Palladium Prices these Days appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

So what’s the difference between platinum and palladium?

It really comes down to two main factors: density and price.

Density

Platinum is denser — and stronger — than palladium. It’s also resistant to rust and corrosive materials. Palladium is durable, too, but less so than platinum. 

Another interesting fact about both metals is that, when they get scratched, they don’t lose any metal. This makes them an ideal material for jewelry, such as wedding bands.

Price

Historically, platinum has typically been the bigger-ticket metal — costing twice as much as palladium, per ounce. Why? Platinum is easier to manipulate minutely without breaking, due to its density. In 2017, however, palladium surpassed the price of platinum for the first time in 16 years.

The value of platinum and palladium is due, in part, to the rarity of the metals. (They’re actually rarer than gold.) It’s also a result of the many applications in which they both can be used.

Applications


Both platinum and palladium are commonly used in jewelry, due to their ability to maintain their brightness over time, without tarnishing. 

Platinum is also used in the systems that control vehicle emissions in our cars. Other common uses include electronics, spark plugs and cancer-fighting medicines. Palladium, on the other hand, is used in vehicle emissions equipment and electronics. It’s also a critical element in fuel cells.

Which is the better metal? It really depends on the application and, in the case of jewelry, personal preference. 

Both have much to offer, which is what’s earned them a spot on the precious metal list in the first place.

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• More than half of the global supply of palladium goes into manufacturing catalytic converters for automobiles and other machines equipped with combustion engines.
• Before the precious metal palladium was discovered, the word “palladium” referred to objects believed to mystically provide protection and safety (e.g. a talisman, rather than a shield). The origin of the definition comes from Homer’s Iliad.
• Rather than conferring his namesake, Wollaston named his discovery after the asteroid, Pallas. The asteroid’s name comes from the Greek goddess Pallas, granddaughter of Poseidon.
• Palladium has the lowest melting point (2830.82 °F) and is the least dense of the PGMs.  
• Deposits of palladium are rare, but are found in South Africa, Canada, and Russia. Much of the world’s demand for palladium is met by recycling catalytic converters.
• In 2010, Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions and organic synthesis – which are widely used for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
• In jewelry, palladium is known for its durability, low-maintenance, and similar appearance to platinum at a much lower cost.

The post Fun Facts about Palladium appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

The purpose of a catalytic converter is to create cleaner emissions. Although catalytic converters look like a filter on the inside, they don’t clean exhaust by filtering it. Instead, they chemically convert the toxic substances in engine exhaust into inert or less toxic substances. This reaction is catalyzed by the PGMs inside the converter.

The filter-like portion of a catalytic converter is actually a substrate plated with an extremely thin layer of PGMs. When exhaust passes through this section, the ambient heat and PGMs kick start multiple chemical reactions. Rhodium enables the reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen. Palladium promotes the oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, and the oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water. Platinum helps with both reduction and oxidation reactions while also giving the substrate more corrosion resistance.

Most of the world’s PGMs go toward the production of catalytic converters, so it’s important to recycle these devices to reclaim the rare metals inside. At MGS, we cannot accept whole catalytic converters – we can only accept the PGM components (pictured). For more information and a payout quote, please contact us.

The post Why Catalytic Convertors Contain PGMs appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

Although we can’t speak to the auto industry’s actual performance for 2016, the increased demand for palladium is obvious if you review the prices over the last 6 months. But with electric vehicles continuing to grow in popularity and decrease in price, it remains to be seen whether this correlation between palladium prices and the auto industry will last through 2017 and beyond.

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