An Essay On Platinum

The world is made up of little particles called atoms. Atoms are made up of 3 parts, protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons hare positive, electrons are negative and neutrons are neutral. Protons and neutrons make up the nucleus and electrons are in the shell. According to Chemicool.com, “An element is a substance consisting of atoms which all have the same number of protons, they are the simplest substances that cannot be broken down.” I will be focusing on an element called platinum.
Platinum is considered to be one of the most valuable metals in the world. Platinum was 1st discovered in a tomb in an Egyptian tomb in 7th century BC, but this metal went under the radar until 1557, when an Italian scholar known as Julius Scaliger wrote about a metal located in South America that would not melt, which is now known as platinum. In 1735, Antonio Ulloa found platinum again, but he was captured by the royal navy and ended up in London. The royalty there was very interested in platinum, and by 1750 people were talking about platinum. Platinum gets its name from the Spanish word ‘platina’, meaning little silver (rsc.org).
The structure of Platinum is Pt 78 195.084 . There are 78 protons,

The largest use of platinum is jewelry, which makes up 50% of platinum’s use. Platinum is even more valuable than gold, because platinum’s structure is denser than gold, and only 160 tons of platinum is mined per year, compared to 1500 tons of gold (Ira Weissman, huffingtonpost.com). Because of its molecular density, platinum is rarely combined with with other metals unlike gold. If one has an allergy to nickel, platinum is the way to go, because nickel is mixed in with gold to create white gold. White gold is a mix of yellow gold with other metals, and dipped in rhodium in order to create a whitish colour, instead of yellow. In jewelry, platinum is much more pure. If a component is not comprised of 95-100% platinum, it is considered a platinum