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Pd Palladium

Palladium catalysts can run chemical reactions inside living cells.

Basic facts

SymbolPd
Atomic number46
Standard atomic weight106.42
Group10
Period5
Blockd-block
CategoryTransition metal
Standard stateSolid
Discovered1803

Source: PubChem, Palladium (periodic table data, retrieved 2026-10-19). Group and period follow the standard 18-column periodic table.

Biotech uses & experiments

biotechnology

lab biotechnology 2018

Light-switched palladium catalyst in cells

Wang and colleagues built a palladium catalyst on macroporous silica whose activity is switched by light through an azobenzene–cyclodextrin cap, and used it for Suzuki–Miyaura reactions to make a fluorescent cell-imaging probe and a mitochondria-targeting agent in living cells.

As reported in: Wang, Zhang, Du et al. (2018). Designed heterogeneous palladium catalysts for reversible light-controlled bioorthogonal catalysis in living cells. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03617-x

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Patents

Search Google Patents for palladium in biological and medical uses: all patents · recent applications (2022+)

A patent is a legal claim, not proof that something works. See the Patents page.