Platinum , metallic chemical element; symbol Pt; at. no. 78; at. wt. 195.08; m.p. 1,772°C; b.p. 3,827±100°C; sp. gr. 21.45 at 20°C; valence +2 or +4. Pure platinum is a malleable, ductile, lustrous, silver-white metal with a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. Chemically inactive, it is unaffected by common acids but dissolves in aqua regia, forming chloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6). It is attacked by the hal It does not combine with oxygen even at high temperatures. Like palladium, it absorbs …showed first 75 words of 472 total…

…showed last 75 words of 472 total…reported by A. de Ulloa. Some of this "platina" was taken to England, and soon thereafter many leading chemists published reports on it. A process discovered about 1803 by W. H. Wollaston for making the metal malleable made possible its commercial use for laboratory apparatus and other purposes. Although platinum was used as an adulterant for gold over a century ago, it is now considered the more valuable of the two. ogens, sulfur, or caustic alkalies.