IN NEWS: A platinum-group chemical element called ruthenium (Ru) is the fourth single element to have unique ferromagnetic properties at room temperature.
About Ru:
- 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.
- Most ruthenium produced is used in wear-resistant electrical contacts and thick-film resistors. A minor application for ruthenium is in platinum alloys and as a chemistry catalyst. A new application of ruthenium is as the capping layer for extreme ultraviolet photomasks.
- Ruthenium is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important quantities are also found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario and in pyroxenite deposits in South Africa.
- From an application perspective, Ru is interesting because it does not oxidize easily and theoretical predictions indicate it is particularly temperature-stable, which is an important property allowing scaling of magnetic memories.
Significance of the discovery:
The discovery could be used to improve sensors, devices in the computer memory and logic industry, or other devices using magnetic materials.
Facts:
- Ferromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets.
- So far, only three single elements were found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature: iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni); the rare earth element gadolinium (Gd) nearly misses by only 8 degrees Celsius.
- Magnetic materials are very important in industry and modern technology and have been used for fundamental studies and in many everyday applications such as sensors, electric motors, generators, hard disk media, and most recently spintronic memories.
Sources: times of india
Wisdom IAS 
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