Knowra Ruthenium Ruthenium Ruthenium is a hard, silvery transition metal with atomic number 44. It is valued for corrosion-resistant alloys, electrical applications, and catalytic activity.
Ruthenium dioxide : An electrically conductive ruthenium oxide used in electrodes, resistors, and electrochemical devices. Its conductivity makes ruthenium useful in thick-film resistors and some capacitor electrodes.
Ruthenium oxidation states : The formal charges ruthenium adopts in compounds, ranging from negative states to high positive states. A broad range of oxidation states lets ruthenium compounds mediate diverse reactions.
Platinum-group metals : A group of six transition metals—ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum—with related properties. Ruthenium is one of the six metals grouped together because of their chemical and geological similarities.
Rhodium : A rare, silvery transition metal with atomic number 45, used in catalytic converters and reflective coatings. Rhodium sits next to ruthenium in the periodic table but is generally more reflective and less abundant.
Ruthenium redox flow battery : A flow-battery design that uses ruthenium complexes to store energy through reversible redox reactions. Ruthenium complexes can participate in the reversible electron transfers needed for energy storage.
Organometallic chemistry : The study of compounds containing bonds between metal atoms and carbon atoms. Many ruthenium catalysts use metal–carbon bonds to bind and transform organic molecules.
Karl Ernst Claus : A Russian chemist who isolated ruthenium and announced its discovery in 1844. Claus identified the element while studying residues from platinum ores.
Osmium : A dense, brittle transition metal with atomic number 76 and the highest density of any naturally occurring element. Osmium is another platinum-group metal, but its extreme density and volatility of some oxides distinguish it.
Ruthenium tetroxide : A volatile, highly reactive ruthenium compound used as an oxidant and in microscopy staining. This compound applies ruthenium’s chemistry to oxidation and biological sample preparation.
Olefin metathesis : A reaction that exchanges carbon–carbon double-bond partners between alkene molecules. Ruthenium carbene catalysts made this bond-rearrangement reaction practical for many substrates.
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