PITTSBURGH, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a technology that easily detects even minute levels of palladium and platinum.
The rare precious metals are used by the automobile, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries as catalysts. But finding the metals involves expensive instruments operated by highly trained chemists and takes days to return results.
But University of Pittsburgh researchers developed a fast, easy and inexpensive method that could help in the discovery of palladium-platinum deposits, as well as refining the production of pharmaceuticals.
Professor Kazunori Koide led the research that relies on a colorless fluorescein-based solution that, under ultraviolet light, glows green when in contact with even tiny amounts of palladium and platinum, which coexist in nature.
The process takes approximately one hour, as compared with the days-long technology employed in the mining and pharmaceutical industries.
The new method can also accommodate hundreds of samples at once, whereas current technology analyzes samples only one at a time, Koide said.
"Our method can be used on the mining site," he said. "And you don't need a doctorate in chemistry -- anyone can do this."
The research appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
