Discovery date : 1844
Discovered by: Karl Karlovich Klaus
Origin of the name: The name is derived from 'Ruthenia', the Latin name for Russia
Allotropes :
~>RUTHENIUM is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most other chemicals.
| FACT BOX | |||
| Group | 8 | Melting point | 2333°C, 4231°F, 2606 K |
| Period | 5 | Boiling point | 4147°C, 7497°F, 4420 K |
| Block | d | Density (g cm−3) | 12.1 |
| Atomic number | 44 | Relative atomic mass | 101.07 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 101Ru,102Ru,104Ru |
| Electron configuration | [Kr] 4d75s1 | CAS number | 7440-18-8 |
| ChemSpider ID | 22390 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
The Polish chemist Jedrzej Sniadecki was investigating platinum ores from South America and, in May 1808, when he discovered a new metal which he called it vestium. However, when French chemists tried to repeat his work they were unable to find it in the platinum ore they had. When Sniadecki learned of this he believed he had been mistaken and withdrew his claim.
Then, in 1825, Gottfried Osann of the University of Dorpat (now Tartu) on the Baltic, investigated some platinum from the Ural mountains, and reported finding three new elements which he named pluranium, polinium, and ruthenium.
While the first two of these were never to be verified, the third was genuine and in 1840 Karl Karlovich Klaus at the University of Kazan extracted, purified, and confirmed it was a new metal. He kept Osann’s name of ruthenium.