Rhodium

Description

Standard State: solid at 298 K
Color: Silvery white metallic

Wollaston discovered rhodium in 1803-1804 in crude platinum ore he presumably obtained from South America. Rhodium occurs native with other platinum metals is river sands of the Urals and in North  and South America.  It is also found with other platinum metals in the copper-nickel sulfide ores of the Sudbury, Ontario Region.  Although the quantity occurring here is very small, the large tonnage of nickel processed make the recovery commercially feasible.  The annual world production of rhodium in is only 7 or 8 tons. Such alloys are used for furnace windings, thermocouple elements, bushings for glass fiber production, electrodes for aircraft spark plugs, and laboratory crucibles.