Ruthenium is one of the platinum elements. Its most important use is to make catalysts. Platinum-ruthenium catalysts can be used to catalyze methanol fuel cells and carbon dioxide reduction; Grubbs catalysts can be used for olefin metathesis reactions. In addition, ruthenium compounds can also be used to manufacture thick film resistors and as light absorbers in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Ruthenium is a kind of noble metal with superior catalytic performance and is used in many reactions, such as hydrogenation reactions and catalytic oxidation reactions. In addition to the characteristics of ruthenium, nano-ruthenium wires have the characteristics of nano-materials and the superior performance of "quantum wires".