What does Rhodium’s name mean?

› Rhodium comes from the Greek word

rhodon, which means rose.

Where was Rhodium discovered?

› It was discovered in England in 1803 by

William Hyde Wollaston.

•Rhodium has an

elemental symbol of

Rh.

•The elemental

number is 45.

•The atomic mass is

102.91.

•This is a sample photo

of Rhodium; it can

look differently.

•Also, Rhodium is a

solid at room

temperature.

Rhodium is a shiny silver color.

Rhodium melts at ~1966°C, or ~2239K.

Rhodium boils at ~3727°C, or 4000K.

Rhodium is very dense. At 293K, its

density is 12.4 g/cm3.

Just as a comparison, water has a

density of 1.00 g/cm3, and steel has a

density of 7.80 g/cm3.

Rhodium is found in it’s elemental form

here in North America. In South America

and Canada, it’s found commonly with

nickel and copper.

Rhodium is mainly used in jewelry, known

as rhodium plating. It can be seen here,

plating a penny.

Also, it’s used as an alloying agent to

harden platinum and palladium.

This is also used to make reflective

surfaces on optical equipment.

Quite a few isotopes exist; one is

naturally occurring: Rh-103.

Some radioactive isotopes are: Rh-99,

Rh-100, Rh-101, Rh-102, Rh-104, and Rh-

105.

•In this picture, this

shows the electron

configuration for the

element.

This website has a few distributors of

Rhodium, so if you really wanted it, you

could order it online.

Did I mention it’s going for ~ $2,200/oz

right now? That’s relatively cheap

compared to the last 5 years of sales.

http://periodictable.com/Elements/045/i

ndex.html

http://www.chemicalelements.com/ele

ments/rh.html

http://www.chemicool.com/elements/rh

odium.html

http://www.webelements.com/rhodium/

http://www.kitco.com/charts/rhodium.ht

ml