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Platinum Foil
Available Configurations
Properties common to all products in this list
| Purity | Thickness | Length | Width | Temper Options | Surface Finish Options | Support Options |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99.85% to 99.999% | 0.0005mm to 2mm | 5mm to 150mm | 5mm to 150mm | As Rolled | Polished on one side | 0.125mm permanent polyester |
Need custom configurations? Please contact our Technical Solutions team.
Key Features
Platinum foil possesses a combination of material characteristics that make it particularly well suited for electronics, aerospace, medical implants, catalysis, and scientific instrumentation:
Exceptional Chemical Inertness
Platinum is one of the most chemically inert metals, resisting oxidation and corrosion in aggressive conditions. It only dissolves in aqua regia, ensuring unmatched longevity in harsh chemical applications.
High Melting Point (1,768 °C)
With one of the highest melting points among precious metals, platinum remains structurally stable under extreme temperature changes, making it ideal for furnace linings, high-temperature gaskets, and thermal shielding.
High Density (21.45 g/cm³)
Its high density contributes to robustness and structural stability, even in ultra-thin gauges. This is critical for precision foil gaskets, shims, and components in MEMS and microelectronics.
Catalytic Activity
Platinum is renowned for its catalytic performance, accelerating oxidation, hydrogenation, and reforming reactions without degradation. It is widely used in chemical reactors, fuel cells, and laboratory catalytic studies.
Thermal Conductivity (72 W/m·K)
Platinum offers good thermal conductivity, enabling efficient heat spreading in thin foil heating elements and thermal management films. This supports uniform temperature control in sensors and precision tooling.
Biocompatibility
Naturally bioinert and non-toxic, platinum foil is used in medical implants, pacemaker leads, neural electrodes, and biosensors. Its chemical stability ensures safe, long-term contact with biological tissues.
Workability & Formability
Platinum foil can be cold-worked and annealed without compromising its durability, making it ideal for custom shaping, microfabrication, and precision foil components.
Low Vapour Pressure & Vacuum Stability
Platinum maintains extremely low vapour pressure even at elevated temperatures, preventing outgassing in vacuum environments. This is ideal for UHV seals, deposition shutter blades, and vacuum chamber liners.
Optical Reflectivity & Emissivity Control
Platinum foil offers reliable light reflection across the visible and near-infrared range, along with a stable heat emission profile. These properties are critical for black-body calibration targets, radiometric heat-flux sensors, and optical pyrometer calibration.
Industrial Applications
High-purity platinum foil is used across high-technology sectors for its unparalleled chemical inertness, catalytic activity, thermal stability, and biocompatibility:
- ✦ Catalysts & Chemical Processing
- Platinum foil acts as a catalyst and support in hydrogenation, reforming, and emission control — including fuel cells and petroleum refining — owing to its surface activity, resistance to poisoning, and durability in hot, corrosive environments.
- ✦ Electronics & Sensor Engineering
- Its corrosion resistance and thermal stability enable platinum foil to deliver low-drift, high-reliability performance in RTDs, heating circuits, and microelectronic contacts.
- ✦ Aerospace & Thermal Management
- Used in gaskets, thermal shielding films, jet engines, re-entry vehicles, and insulation for spacecraft, platinum foil withstands extreme heat and oxidation without degradation.
- ✦ Scientific Instrumentation & Laboratory Equipment
- Platinum foil ensures chemical purity and dimensional stability in vacuum seals, X-ray windows, pressure sensors, crucibles, and evaporation boats.
- ✦ Medical & Bioelectronic Devices
- Biocompatible and non-toxic, platinum foil is ideal for implantable electrodes, neural interfaces, and biosensors requiring long-term tissue contact.
- ✦ Glass Manufacturing
- Its non-reactivity with silicates and high-temperature durability make platinum foil essential in bushings, stirrers, and feeders for molten glass handling.
Mentions in Scientific Literature
Goodfellow's platinum foil features prominently in research including but not exclusive to domains such as:
Advanced Coating & Surface Treatments, used as a substrate for applying ultra-thin diamond coatings in medical implants, and for growing advanced materials like graphene and boron nitride in next-generation electronics
[1–4]
.
Energy Technology Components, serving as a current collector in experimental supercapacitors made from flexible materials, and as a stable reference in X-ray studies to improve fuel cell catalyst performance
[5–6]
.
Medical Implants & Neurotechnology, serving as a core electrode material in implantable neural devices and used to test and fine-tune electrical stimulation techniques in neuroscience research
[7]
.
Nuclear Physics & Particle Detection, used as a substrate for radioactive sources in high-precision experiments including those that study particle behaviour and nuclear properties
[8–9]
.
Electrochemical Sensors & Lab Equipment, used in reference electrodes for chemical sensing and in layered sensor designs requiring precise spacing and stable electrical performance
[10]
.
High-Temperature Lab Processes, used as crucible liners to prevent unwanted reactions during high-temperature nanomaterial synthesis, and applied in thermocouple wires for precise temperature monitoring in demanding lab environments
[11]
.
Across these disciplines researchers have utilised our platinum foils as
electrode substrates and diamond coating supports for medical implants and neural devices
[1–3]
,
current collectors and catalytic reference materials in energy technology
[5–6]
,
ion implantation targets for nuclear calibration sources
[8–9]
, and
precision crucible liners and thermocouple supports in high-temperature nanomaterial synthesis
[11]
— applications that all benefit from platinum's chemical inertness, thermal resilience, and biocompatibility.
References & Citations
Click to expand
- Sikder, M. K. U. (2018). Exploring the use of diamond in medical implants. The University of Melbourne. https://rest.mars-prod.its.unimelb.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/01d79420-cb07-5d4f-b680-7ded2cf9d3a0/content
- Sikder, Md. K. U., Tong, W., Pingle, H., Kingshott, P., Needham, K., Shivdasani, M. N., Fallon, J. B., Seligman, P., Ibbotson, M. R., Prawer, S., & Garrett, D. J. (2020). Laminin coated diamond electrodes for neural stimulation. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 118, 111454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2020.111454
- Auxilia, G., Lamberti, A., James, A., & Villalobos, J. (2018). Graphene-based electrodes for neural stimulation and signal recording. https://webthesis.biblio.polito.it/secure/7587/1/tesi.pdf
- Kim, J., Kim, D., Jo, Y., Han, J., Woo, H., Kim, H., Kim, K. K., Hong, J. P., & Im, H. (2015). Impact of graphene and single-layer BN insertion on bipolar resistive switching characteristics in tungsten oxide resistive memory. Thin Solid Films, 589, 188–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2015.05.002
- Nyström, G., Strømme, M., Sjödin, M., & Nyholm, L. (2012). Rapid potential step charging of paper-based polypyrrole energy storage devices. Electrochimica Acta, 70, 91–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2012.03.060
- Mechler, A. K., Nastaran Ranjbar Sahraie, Armel, V., Zitolo, A., Moulay Tahar Sougrati, Schwämmlein, J. N., Jones, D. J., & Frédéric Jaouen. (2018). Stabilization of Iron-Based Fuel Cell Catalysts by Non-Catalytic Platinum. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165(13), F1084–F1091. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0721813jes
- Dimitrios Simatos. (2021). Water Stability of Organic and Electrolyte-Gated Field-Effect Transistors. ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/openview/f0a357311c7c996e3e4acacaba06e4f4/1
- M Zbořil, Bauer, S., Beck, M., Bonn, J., O Dragoun, J Jakůbek, Johnston, K., A Kovalík, Otten, E. W., K Schlösser, M Slezák, A Špalek, T Thümmler, D Vénos, J Žemlička, & Weinheimer, C. (2013). Ultra-stable implanted 83Rb/83mKr electron sources for the energy scale monitoring in the KATRIN experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 8(03), P03009–P03009. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/8/03/p03009
- Arenz, M. L., & Bonn. (2017, September 29). Production and PAC studies of 83Rb/83mKr solid state calibration sources for the KATRIN experiment. INIS – International Nuclear Information System. https://inis.iaea.org/records/hsmv7-x7a71
- Randhahn, J. (2007, August). Der redoxcyclische Sensor — Struktur, Herstellungstechnologie, mathematisches Modell und schaltungstechnisches Konzept. University of Rostock. https://d-nb.info/99402388x/34
- Lopez, J. C. S. (1998, September). Estudio de metales y sulfuros nanocristalinos preparados por evaporación en atmósfera de gas inerte. Mixed Center CSIC – University of Seville. https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/164911/1/Tesis%20JC%20Sanchez-Lopez_1998-final.pdf
Synonyms
Material Properties
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Atomic number | 78 |
| Crystal structure | Face centred cubic |
| Electronic structure | Xe 4f¹⁴ 5d⁹ 6s¹ |
| Valences shown | 1,2,3,4 |
| Atomic weight( amu ) | 195.08 |
| Thermal neutron absorption cross-section( Barns ) | 9 |
| Photo-electric work function( eV ) | 5.3 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 192/ 0.79 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 196/ 25.30 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 190/ 0.01 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 195/ 33.80 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 198/ 7.20 |
| Natural isotope distribution( Mass No./% ) | 194/ 32.90 |
| Atomic radius - Goldschmidt( nm ) | 0.138 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 1/ 9.0 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 2/ 18.6 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Material condition | Hard |
| Material condition | Soft |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.39 |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.39 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 276 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 276 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 170 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 170 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 40 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 100 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 200-300 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 125-150 |
| Yield strength( MPa ) | 14-35 |
| Yield strength( MPa ) | 185 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Electrical resistivity( µOhmcm ) | 10.58@20°C |
| Temperature coefficient( K⁻¹ ) | 0.00392@0-100°C |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Boiling point( C ) | 3827 |
| Density( gcm⁻³ ) | 21.45@20°C |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Melting point( C ) | 1772 |
| Latent heat of evaporation( J g⁻¹ ) | 2405 |
| Latent heat of fusion( J g⁻¹ ) | 101 |
| Specific heat( J K⁻¹ kg⁻¹ ) | 133@025°C |
| Thermal conductivity( W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ ) | 71.6@0-100°C |
| Coefficient of thermal expansion( x10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ ) | 9@0-100 |
Tolerances
| Thickness | <0.01mm | ±25% |
|---|---|---|
| Thickness | 0.01mm - 0.05mm | ±15% |
| Thickness | >0.05mm | ±10% |