Rhodium is a shiny silver-colored metal that was discovered in England in 1803. It has a high melting point of 1966°C and boiling point of 3727°C. Rhodium is very dense, with a density of 12.4 g/cm3, higher than water and steel. It is commonly found with nickel and copper in South America and Canada. Rhodium is primarily used for plating jewelry and coins and alloying with platinum and palladium for hardness.

2.  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.

4. •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.

5. Rhodium is a shiny silver color.

6.  Rhodium melts at ~1966°C, or ~2239K.
 Rhodium boils at ~3727°C, or 4000K.

7.  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.

8.  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.

9.  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.

10.  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.

11. •In this picture, this
shows the electron
configuration for the
element.

12.  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.

14.  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