Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
Speaker 1: there's Chuck. And let's take it back to Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1: The year's eighteen hundred, and I'm an English scientist named
Speaker 1: William Hyde Wallaston. Who are you, Chuck?
Speaker 2: I guess that would make me your colleague Smithson Tenant.
Speaker 1: Neil Tennant's great great great great grandfather.
Speaker 2: I don't believe you have not falling for anything anymore.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what are we doing on this Christmas Eve
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred.
Speaker 2: Well, we're coming. We're unwrapping a very special thing, a
Speaker 2: precious metal platinum or that's right. We paid got to
Speaker 2: stop that.
Speaker 1: We paid a pretty penny for it too. It came
Speaker 1: from what we would call Columbia today, what Wallaston and
Speaker 1: Tenant us called Nueva Granada, which is fancy. But they
Speaker 1: paid something like seven hundred and ninety five pounds for it,
Speaker 1: which in eighteen hundred that'd be one thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: today it'd be like twenty three thousand dollars. I would
Speaker 1: have thought inflation would have made that way more, but still,
Speaker 1: that's a decent amount of money to pay for a
Speaker 1: hunk of platinum. Even back then, the reason why they
Speaker 1: paid so much for it and why they had to
Speaker 1: smuggle it out is because it was essentially pure platinum,
Speaker 1: which is very, very hard to find. And one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that Wallaston wanted it was because he was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to create a chemical reaction
Speaker 1: that could make platinum malleable and therefore even more useful
Speaker 1: than it already was.
Speaker 2: That's right. He's like, I think I can do it.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty smart, and I think we can get a
Speaker 2: lot of uses out of valuable platinum. And so he
Speaker 2: worked on it for a few years, or rather you
Speaker 2: worked on it for a few years.
Speaker 1: And you helped.
Speaker 2: I helped a little bit. I got your tea and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, latch at your jokes, kind of like
Speaker 2: this podcast, Oh here's your tea, by the ways. And
Speaker 2: he eventually would or you eventually would get that chemical
Speaker 2: process down pat and isolate that platinum, and it was
Speaker 2: in fact malleable. But what he noticed was was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's something left over here, these reddish salts,
Speaker 2: and like, what in the world could this be? And
Speaker 2: it turns out that Wallaston, Wallaston and Tenet had also
Speaker 2: discovered not just one other precious metal. But two we're
Speaker 2: going to focus on rhodium, but they also discovered palladium.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty neat stuff.
Speaker 2: That's a big bang for your buck.
Speaker 1: And the reason they called it rodium it was after
Speaker 1: the Greek word for rose, which is rodin, right, which
Speaker 1: sounds like kind of like a robot that assembles from
Speaker 1: different parts and fights.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 1: So, and the reason why is because those salts are
Speaker 1: kind of like a reddish rose color. Oh that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's a great name right off of the bat. But
Speaker 1: even more than that, they figured out that roodium and
Speaker 1: palladium were related to platinum. They're part of what's called
Speaker 1: the platinum group metals. I don't know if that's a
Speaker 1: band or not.
Speaker 2: I was waiting for it, maybe like.
Speaker 1: A prog rock like an all star prog rock band.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's not metal, No, not at all. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of the noble metals.
Speaker 2: It is. The roodium has a chemical it's a chemical
Speaker 2: element with the symbol r H atomic number forty five,
Speaker 2: and it is in the group with iridium and ruthenium
Speaker 2: and platinum pladium.
Speaker 1: What else don't iridium and osmium. Yeah, so it's a.
Speaker 2: Pretty big deal that they found this, and also obviously
Speaker 2: gold and silver also precious metals, and it turns out
Speaker 2: that rhodium is super valuable today and very useful today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of them be rare. It is rare. It's
Speaker 1: incredibly rare. Actually, it's I guess almost never found or
Speaker 1: never found in pure form. It's found in alloys with
Speaker 1: other stuff, and it's usually found in just minuscule So
Speaker 1: it's rare. It's scarce, and it's it was until very
Speaker 1: recently in really high demand, so much so that the
Speaker 1: price of an ounce of rhodium in April of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one was approaching thirty thousand dollars in ounce.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the peak, that rodium peak.
Speaker 1: That's one of the most expensive like commodities on the planet,
Speaker 1: if not the most expensive. I'm not sure. What's interesting, Chuck, though,
Speaker 1: is that it's now down to about four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: an ounce. And I say, we don't tell anybody why
Speaker 1: until we come back from a message break.
Speaker 2: Sounds good, all right, So we left quite a cliffhanger.
Speaker 2: Rodium peaked at about close to thirty thousand dollars not
Speaker 2: too long ago, and just march in April of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one. Now it's abound down to about four grand
Speaker 2: I saw like thirty nine today forty two hundred yesterday
Speaker 2: in that area, and the forecast is for it to
Speaker 2: be about the same, which is still one of the
Speaker 2: most valuable medals.
Speaker 1: In the world, more than gold for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's like still twice as much as gold,
Speaker 2: so it's still very, very valuable. But like anything, it's
Speaker 2: all about supply and demand. And while the supply is
Speaker 2: still low because it's still rare, it's not like they
Speaker 2: found some huge supply of it somewhere. The demand has
Speaker 2: gone way down for a lot of reasons that are
Speaker 2: pretty boring. If you're someone who talks about things like
Speaker 2: financial instruments, then you might really enjoy hearing about like
Speaker 2: the twelve reasons that I found that it's not a demand.
Speaker 2: But one of the big reasons that everyone can understand
Speaker 2: is that rodium is one of the biggest uses is
Speaker 2: that it's used in catalytic converters, which is one reason
Speaker 2: why catalytic converters are stolen because they contain palladium, platinum,
Speaker 2: and rodium, and people can cut them off very easily
Speaker 2: and sell them for a lot of money. But catalytic
Speaker 2: converters are on the decline because of the rise of
Speaker 2: electric vehicles, so thus rodium the demand is down.
Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting? Like just the price of rodium indicates
Speaker 1: that the world turned a corner and it's like, yeap,
Speaker 1: electric vehicles are here to stay and we don't really
Speaker 1: need catalytic converters like we used to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll go back up though, because the other eleven
Speaker 2: reasons are much more volatile and not as locked in.
Speaker 1: Okay, but still it's just not in demand. I think
Speaker 1: something like eighty percent of the use or the demand
Speaker 1: for rodium was with the automotive industry, largely for catalytic converters.
Speaker 1: The reason why they use it for catalytic converts because
Speaker 1: it is just aces at converting nitrous oxide emissions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which it's crazy there, well, some that comes out of
Speaker 1: your tailpipe, but nothing like it would without a catalytic converter.
Speaker 1: Like we would not be breathing basically right now with
Speaker 1: all the cars on the road if there weren't catalytic
Speaker 1: converters featuring rodium. And the solution to that is not
Speaker 1: more rodium, it's fewer catalytic converters.
Speaker 2: Turns out. Yeah, I wrote the catalytic converter article years
Speaker 2: ago at how stuff works.
Speaker 1: How was it?
Speaker 2: It was a slog my friend, Yeah, as someone you know,
Speaker 2: I think for both of us were not super car
Speaker 2: guys so or at least how cars work, so it
Speaker 2: was tough.
Speaker 1: Well, can you take ten minutes and explain how they
Speaker 1: work real quick?
Speaker 2: I have no memory of it, but what I do
Speaker 2: remember is you said eighty percent as far as their
Speaker 2: use in catalytic converters, also, eighty percent. That's how much
Speaker 2: rodium South Africa is putting out, about eighty percent of
Speaker 2: the world supplies coming from South Africa. Russia is number
Speaker 2: two on that list, Zimbabwe is number three, and there's
Speaker 2: also a and again, these aren't rhodium mines. I think
Speaker 2: they're generally platinum mines for the most part, right, but
Speaker 2: there's a platinum mine in Montana that is producing some
Speaker 2: rodium as well.
Speaker 1: Pretty neat, not bad. One of the cool things about
Speaker 1: rodium is that it's super shiny. It's got a beautiful,
Speaker 1: silvery white sheen to it, so it makes it very alluring,
Speaker 1: like momo. Yeah, exactly. It has like a lot of attractiveness.
Speaker 1: It also is very hard, which is a double edged
Speaker 1: sword for jewelers. It makes it really hard to make
Speaker 1: jewelry out of. But if you can figure out how
Speaker 1: to plate rodium onto other kinds of jewelry, it will
Speaker 1: make it super shiny and super hard and durable. And
Speaker 1: that's one way that they have figured out how to
Speaker 1: use rhodium is they plate it. And to plate it
Speaker 1: you actually have to dissolve it in certain kinds of acids,
Speaker 1: and that causes fumes, and you do not want to
Speaker 1: breathe those fumes. But if you can successfully avoid breathing
Speaker 1: the fumes, you can plate jewelry with roodium and you'll
Speaker 1: be pretty happy with the result afterwards. I hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is actually one of the least toxic of
Speaker 2: those precious metals, but it is that the fumes that
Speaker 2: are harmful for sure, So they have found ways to
Speaker 2: work on it as jewelers to avoid those fumes. Another
Speaker 2: great part about rhodium on jewelry is that it's hyper hypoallergenic,
Speaker 2: so you're not you know, sometimes if you wear bracelets
Speaker 2: and rings and things that will turn your skin a
Speaker 2: different color. This avoids that that plating of rodium will
Speaker 2: not turn your skin different colors, so that's another big plus.
Speaker 2: And it's also because it's hard. It's very scratch resistant,
Speaker 2: it's corrosion resistant. It's pretty hardy. But they have to
Speaker 2: do it in such a then layers it will wear down.
Speaker 2: So they say if you do have a rodium plated
Speaker 2: piece of jewelry or something, they say that you should
Speaker 2: probably not do it on like a ring. You should
Speaker 2: probably do it for like ear rings or a necklace
Speaker 2: or something that doesn't get rubbed around a lot in
Speaker 2: your skin. And you might want to think about getting
Speaker 2: it replated every few years. And it sounds like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, it's the most expensive thing in the world.
Speaker 2: Why would I do that. They need so little of
Speaker 2: it to plate your jewelry that apparently isn't that much money. No,
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's relative, but it's not like you would
Speaker 2: think like, oh, it costs like ten grand to get
Speaker 2: this thing replated.
Speaker 1: Right, because you don't need an ounce of this stuff.
Speaker 2: No, you don't need a little tiny bit.
Speaker 1: And that's all it takes. All it takes one other
Speaker 1: use for it that I think we should end on.
Speaker 1: Not only does it catalyze nitrous oxide into less harmful stuff,
Speaker 1: it is the catalyst for the reaction that produces menthol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you like chewing gum or you can thank
Speaker 1: roodium for that.
Speaker 2: Aren't they getting rid of mental cigarettes?
Speaker 1: They should?
Speaker 2: I thought I just saw something about that recently.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I could. I could definitely see
Speaker 1: us reaching that point.
Speaker 2: Finally, I'm not sure why I would have dreamed that up,
Speaker 2: even though I had the weirdest dream ever last night,
Speaker 2: so you never know, but I thought I saw something.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I'm sure we'll figure that out.
Speaker 1: You're not going to share last night's stream.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no no, but it involved Michael Douglas
Speaker 2: and Catherine Zada Jones.
Speaker 1: Awesome. So if you want to know more about this
Speaker 1: wonderful topic, Rodium, you can go on to how Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: because that's where we got this article, and that means
Speaker 1: short stuff is out.
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