Short Stuff: Rhodium | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

foreign. [Music]. stuff I'm Josh and there's Chuck and. let's take it back to Christmas Eve the. year is 1800 and I'm an English. scientist named William Hyde wallaceon. who are you Chuck. uh I guess that would make me your. colleague Smithson tenant Neil tenants. great great great great great. grandfather I don't believe you have not. falling for anything anymore okay so. what are we doing on this Christmas Eve.

1800 well we're coming we're unwrapping. a very special thing a precious metal uh. Platinum Ore that's right we got to stop. that we paid a pretty penny for it too. it came from what we would call Columbia. today what walliston and tenant us. called Nueva Granada. yeah which is fancy but it they paid. something like 795 pounds for it which. in 1800 that'd be a thousand dollars and.

today it'd be like twenty three thousand. dollars I would have thought inflation. would have made that way more but still. that's a decent amount of money to pay. for a hunk of platinum even back then. the reason why they paid so much for it. and why they had to smuggle it out is. because it was essentially Pure Platinum. which is very very hard to find uh and. one of the reasons that walliston wanted. it was because he was trying to figure. out how to create a chemical reaction. that could make platinum malleable and. therefore even more useful than it.

already was. that's right he's like I think I can do. it I'm pretty smart and I think we can. get a lot of uses out of malleable. platinum and so he worked on it for a. few years or rather you worked on it for. a few years and you helped. I helped a little bit I got your tea and. stuff like that latch at your jokes kind. of like this podcast oh uh here's your. tea by the way thanks uh and he. eventually would or you eventually would. get that chemical process down pat and.

isolate that platinum and it was in fact. malleable but what he noticed was was. like wait a minute there's something. left over here these these reddish salts. and like what in the world could this be. and it turns out that uh Wollaston. walliston and tinnit had also discovered. uh not just one other precious metal but. two we're going to focus on rhodium but. they also discovered Palladium yeah. pretty neat stuff that's a big bang for. your buck the reason they call it.

rhodium it was after the Greek word for. Rose which is rodon right which sounds. like kind of like a robot that assembles. from different parts and fights I was. gonna say the same thing so um and the. reason why is because those salts are. kind of like a reddish rose color so. that's pretty cool uh that's a great. name right off of the bat but even more. than that they figured out that rhodium. and Palladium were related to platinum. they're part of What's called the. Platinum Group metals. don't know if that's a band name or not.

I was waiting for it maybe like a Prague. Rock like a. um All-Star Prague rock band yeah that's. not metal no not at all yeah yeah. totally uh yeah it's one of the noble. medals uh it is the rhodium is it has a. chemical it's a chemical element with. the symbol r h atomic number 45. and uh it is in the group with iridium. and ruthenium and platinum Palladium. what else don't forget iridium and. osmium yeah. so it's a pretty big deal that they.

found this uh and also obviously gold. and silver also precious metals and it. turns out that rhodium is uh super. valuable today and very useful today. yeah one of them and rare it is rare um. it's incredibly rare actually it's I. guess almost never found or never found. in pure form it's found in Alloys with. other stuff. um and it's usually found in just. minuscule amounts so it's rare it's.

scarce. and um it's it was until very recently. in really high demand so much so that. the price of an ounce of rhodium. in April of 2021 was approaching 30. 000 dollars an ounce yeah that was the. the peak that rhodium Peak that's one of. like the most expensive like Commodities. on the planet if not the most expensive. I'm not sure what's interesting Chuck.

though is that it's now down to about. four thousand dollars an ounce and I say. we don't tell anybody why until we come. back from a message break. sounds good. [Music].

all right so we left quite a cliffhanger. uh rhodium peaked at about close to. thirty thousand dollars uh not too long. ago and just March and April of 2021 now. it's bound down to about four grand I. saw like 39 today 4200 yesterday in that. area and the forecast is for it to be. about the same which is still one of the. most valuable Metals in the world more. than gold for sure yeah I mean it's like. still twice as much as gold so it's.

still very very valuable but like. anything it's all about supply and. demand and while the supply is still low. because it's still rare it's not like. they found some huge supply of it. somewhere uh the the demand has gone way. down for a lot of reasons that are. pretty boring uh if you're a fine if. you're someone who talks about things. like financial instruments then you. might really enjoy hearing about like. the 12 reasons that I found that it's. not a demand but one of the big reasons.

reasons that everyone can understand is. that rhodium is one of the biggest uses. is that it's used in catalytic. converters which is one reason why. catalytic converters are stolen because. they contain Palladium platinum and. rhodium and people can cut them off very. easily and sell them for a lot of money. but catalytic converters are on the. decline because of the rise of electric. vehicles so thus rhodium the demand is. down isn't that interesting like just. the just the price of rhodium indicates.

that the world turned a corner and it's. like yep electric vehicles are here to. stay and we don't really need catalytic. converters like we used to yeah it'll go. back up though because the other 11. reasons are much more volatile and not. as locked in okay but still it's not. getting it's just not in demand I think. something like 80 percent of the use or. the demand for rhodium was with the. automotive industry largely for. catalytic converters the reason why they. use it for catalytic Converses because.

it is it's just Aces at converting. nitrous oxide emissions yeah which it. it's crazy still some that comes out of. your tailpipe but nothing like it would. without a catalytic converter like we. would not be breathing basically right. now with all the cars on the road if. there weren't catalytic converters. featuring rhodium and the solution to. that is not more rhodium it's fewer. catalytic converters turns out yeah I. wrote the catalytic converter article. years ago at how stuff works how was it.

was a slog my friend yeah as someone you. know I think for both of us we're not. Super Car Guys so or at least how cars. work so it was tough well can you take. 10 minutes and explain how they work. real quick I have no memory of it but. what I do remember is you said 80. percent uh as far as their use in. catalytic converters uh also 80 that's. how much rhodium South Africa is putting. out about 80 percent of the world. supplies coming from South Africa Russia.

is number two on that list Zimbabwe is. number three and there's also a and. again these aren't rhodium mines I think. they're generally Platinum mines for the. most part right but there's a platinum. mine in Montana that is producing some. rhodium as well pretty neat not bad one. of the cool things about rhodium is that. it's super shiny it's got a beautiful. silvery white Sheen to it so it makes it. very alluring like Momo yeah exactly.

um it it has like a a lot of like. attractiveness it also is very hard. which is a double-edged sword for. Jewelers it makes it really hard to make. jewelry out of but if you can figure out. how to Plate rhodium onto other kinds of. jewelry it will make it super shiny and. super hard and durable and that's one. way that they have figured out how to. use rhodium is they plate it and to. Plate it you actually have to dissolve. it in certain kinds of acids and that.

causes fumes and you do not want to. breathe those fumes but if you can. successfully avoid breathing the fumes. you can plate jewelry with rhodium and. you'll be pretty happy with the result. afterwards I hear. yeah it is actually one of the least. toxic of those precious metals but it is. that the fumes that are harmful for sure. so they have found ways to work on it as. Jewelers to avoid those fumes uh one. another great part about rhodium on.

jewelry is that it's hyper. hypoallergenic so you're not you know. sometimes if you wear bracelets and. rings and things that will turn your. skin a different color. uh this avoids that that plating of. rhodium will not turn your skin. different colors so that's another big. plus uh and it's also because it's hard. it's very scratch resistant it's. corrosion resistant it's uh it's pretty. Hardy. um but they have to do it in such a thin.

layer but it's it will wear down so they. say if you do have a rhodium plated uh. piece of jewelry or something they say. that you should uh probably not do it on. like a ring you should probably do it. for like earrings or a necklace or. something that doesn't get rubbed around. a lot in your skin and you might want to. think about getting it replated every. few years uh and it sounds like oh my. gosh it's the most expensive thing in. the world why would I do that they need. so little of it to Plate your jewelry. that it apparently isn't that much money.

no I'm sure that's relative but it's not. like you would think like oh it costs. like 10 grand to get this thing replated. right because you don't need an ounce of. this stuff no you don't need a little a. bit and that's all it takes it's all it. takes there's one other use for it that. I think we should end on all right let's. hear not only does it catalyze nitrous. oxide into less harmful stuff it is the. Catalyst for the reaction that produces. Menthol yeah so if you like chewing gum. or cools you can thank rhodium for that.

aren't they getting rid of menthol. cigarettes they should. I thought I just saw something about. that recently I don't know but I could I. could definitely see us reaching that. point finally. I'm not sure why I would have dreamed. that up uh even though I had the. weirdest dream ever last night so you. never know. uh but I thought I saw something so. anyway I'm sure we'll figure that out. you're not going to share last night's. dream. oh no no no no but it involved Michael.

Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones Awesome. so if you. knew more about this wonderful topic. rhodium you can go on to how stuff works. because that's where we got this article. and that means short stuff is out. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeartRadio for more podcasts my heart. radio visit the iHeartRadio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. foreign.