A new approach to detecting platinum and palladium has been developed that could significantly improve the speed at which the platinum group metals (pgms) are discovered.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Arts and Sciences have used a colourless fluorescein-based solution that can be seen to glow green when it comes into contact with even minute amounts of platinum or palladium, when a florescent light is shone on it.

Chemistry Professor Kazunori Koide, who came up with the technology, claims that the approach is far quicker than the analysis currently used in pgm mining exploration operations and can accommodate hundreds of samples at once.

While current analysis takes days to carry out, this new approach needs only an hour to complete, Professor Koide added.

He pointed out that the method is so simple that "anyone can do this" and said that it could be used on the mining site, while the pharmaceutical industry is also understood to be interested in the potential for the method to discover trace amounts of platinum and palladium.

The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Source:

Palladium And Platinum An Easier Find With New Detection Method, 23/09/07
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070923193618.htm

Palladium and platinum an easier find with Pitt researcher's detection method, 22/09/07
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/uop-pap092007.php

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