The Discovery Of Ruthenium

In 1844 Karl Karlovitch Klaus, then an unknown provessor at the University of Kazan, reported his discovery of a new platinum metal which he named ruthenium, after Ruthenia, the latinised name for Russia. Besides studying the characteristics of ruthenium, Klaus conducted a wide ranging investigation of rhodium, iridium, osmium, and to a lesser extent, palladium and platinum. Thus, he may be regarded as the creator of the chemistry of the platinum metals, and the one who introduced the concept of the structure of the "double salts and bases" of platinum, which was developed some forty years later by Alfred Werner in his co-ordination theory.