WEBVTT - How Does Rhodium Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>vogelbamb Here. On Christmas Eve in the year eighteen hundred,

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<v Speaker 1>English scientist William Hyde Wallaston and his colleagues Smithson Tenant

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<v Speaker 1>unwrapped a gift to themselves. It was a piece of

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<v Speaker 1>nearly pure platinum ore, secretly purchased and smuggled from the

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<v Speaker 1>Spanish colony of Duevo Granada in South America. Oh, what's

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<v Speaker 1>Columbia today? The price tag was seven hundred and ninety

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<v Speaker 1>five pounds worth, a little over one thousand American dollars

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<v Speaker 1>at the time and over twenty three thousand dollars today.

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<v Speaker 1>The pair had high hopes for this hunk of rock.

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<v Speaker 1>A Wallaston believed he could create a new chemical process

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<v Speaker 1>that would make the solid ore a malleable platinum. Little

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<v Speaker 1>did Walston know that his Christmas ore was the gift

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<v Speaker 1>that would keep on giving. Their sample had secrets of

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<v Speaker 1>its own, hidden away, a new, rare elemental metal never

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<v Speaker 1>known to science before then. Today it's one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most valuable and precious metals on the planet Rhodium. With

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<v Speaker 1>his chunk of smuggled platinum ore, in a few years

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<v Speaker 1>Wallaston did what earlier scientists could not. He achieved a

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<v Speaker 1>chemical process that isolated platinum and rendered it malleable. As

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<v Speaker 1>he dissolved the platinum ore in his backyard garden laboratory,

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<v Speaker 1>he produced both a soluble and a non soluble residue.

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<v Speaker 1>After precipitating the soluble solution, he noticed reddish salts remained.

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<v Speaker 1>Red salts are not typical of platinum, and Walaston suspected

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<v Speaker 1>something else was present in the sample. Over eighteen oh

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<v Speaker 1>three and eighteen oh four, Walaston announced that with the

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<v Speaker 1>sample of platinum ore, he had discovered two other precious metals.

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<v Speaker 1>One he called polydium and the other rhodium, and the

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<v Speaker 1>name is rooted in the Greek word for rose. Because

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<v Speaker 1>of those reddish salts, Rodium is now part of what's

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<v Speaker 1>known as the platinum group metals, six metals with similar

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<v Speaker 1>characteristics that are clumped together in the periodic table and

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<v Speaker 1>often in deposits in real life. The group consists of

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<v Speaker 1>rodium and polydium, perhaps obviously platinum, and then ruthenium, iridium,

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<v Speaker 1>and osmium. Platinum group metals are also considered precious metals

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<v Speaker 1>alongside gold and silver, a meaning that they're rare and

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<v Speaker 1>have a high economic value due to a number of traits.

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<v Speaker 1>They're fairly durable, not very reactive, easily workable or ductile,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're shiny. Erodium is an ultra shiny, corrosion resistant

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<v Speaker 1>metal that has become useful in many industries, including the automobile, jewelry, chemical,

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<v Speaker 1>and electrical trades, and that usefulness, combined with its scarcity,

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<v Speaker 1>can keep the price high. Today, the price of rodium

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<v Speaker 1>is four one hundred dollars in ounce. Compare that to

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<v Speaker 1>platinum at nine hundred and sixty two bucks anounced or

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<v Speaker 1>gold at one thousand, nine hundred and seventy two. Only

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<v Speaker 1>iridium is higher at four thousand, six hundred dollars an ounce,

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<v Speaker 1>but in twenty twenty one, rodium was all the way

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<v Speaker 1>up to twenty nine thousand dollars in ounce. The volatile

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<v Speaker 1>and high prices are most likely due to new regulations

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<v Speaker 1>for cleaner emissions in the automobile industry, particularly in China

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<v Speaker 1>and Europe, combined with supply chain issues during the COVID

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen pandemic. When rodium is found, it's never in its

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<v Speaker 1>pure form, or rather it's almost always collected as a

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<v Speaker 1>minuscule byproduct of platinum, copper, or nickel refining. South Africa

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<v Speaker 1>is the largest producer of rodium by way of the

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<v Speaker 1>country's massive platinum mining operations, which have been called into

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<v Speaker 1>frequent question of the last ten years due to labor

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<v Speaker 1>rights and human rights abuses. People have been mining rodium

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<v Speaker 1>as a byproduct platinum since the nineteen thirties after large

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<v Speaker 1>sediments of platinum ore were found in South Africa. Of

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<v Speaker 1>available rodium, eighty percent is used in catalytic converters in

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<v Speaker 1>cars to help clean exhaust emissions. Rodium is uniquely exceptional

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<v Speaker 1>at breaking down nitrous oxide molecules, the brownish, poisonous gas

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<v Speaker 1>given off by fossil fuel powered cars, trucks, boats, power plants,

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<v Speaker 1>and turbines, among many other offenders. Though the impact of

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<v Speaker 1>nitrous oxide emissions cause irreparable damage to our bodies and ozone,

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<v Speaker 1>it would be a lot worse without rodium. It's also

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<v Speaker 1>useful in industrial laboratories as a catalyst for making nitric acid,

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<v Speaker 1>acetic acid, some kinds of silicone, rubber, and menthol the

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<v Speaker 1>minti flavor in chewing gum. Because rodium is resistant to

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<v Speaker 1>corrosion and conducts electrical current easily. It's used as a

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<v Speaker 1>coating for optic fibers and optical mirrors, headlight reflectors, and

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<v Speaker 1>electrical material. However, the average human is most likely to

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<v Speaker 1>directly encounter rodium in shiny, lustrous jewelry. Even though it's

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<v Speaker 1>not the easiest metal to work with, it's extremely hard

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<v Speaker 1>and has a very high melting point at three thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred and ninety five degrees fahrenheit or two thousand

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<v Speaker 1>and thirty five degrees celsius. Before the article this episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on How Stuffworks. Spoke with Sean Peterson, supervisor

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<v Speaker 1>of Jewelry Manufacturing, Arts, Research and Development at the Gemological

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<v Speaker 1>Institute of America. He said a rodium by itself is

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<v Speaker 1>too hard for general jewelry making purposes. The most common

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<v Speaker 1>use for rodium is as a plating over other metal alloys,

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<v Speaker 1>either to help protect against allergies or to improve the

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<v Speaker 1>color of the jewelry item. Jewelers seek roodium to use

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<v Speaker 1>in the jewelry making process because it is bright, silvery

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<v Speaker 1>white in color, and very hard, which can help make

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<v Speaker 1>the jewelry more scratch and corrosion resistant. It's also hypo allergenic,

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<v Speaker 1>which can help those that may be allergic to certain

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<v Speaker 1>jewelry metal alloys. The con is that the rhodium plating

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<v Speaker 1>is only a thin layer coating jewelry. This means that

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<v Speaker 1>over time the roodium will reduce due to wear and tear.

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<v Speaker 1>Because you need so little rodium to plate a piece

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<v Speaker 1>of jewelry, it's relatively affordable, though you may have to

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<v Speaker 1>have it replated once every year or two to keep

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<v Speaker 1>its luster up. So keep in mind that the color

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<v Speaker 1>and shine of a rodium plated piece of jewelry will

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<v Speaker 1>change over time without that additional cost and work. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article roodium is Earth's rarest

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<v Speaker 1>and most expensive precious metal on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written

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<v Speaker 1>by Aleison Trautner. Brains Stuff is production by Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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