Platinum
The cost of platinum as of January 2010 was $49,995 per kilogram, making it the second most expensive precious metal after rhodium. Iridium, by contrast, has only about one-fourth the value of platinum ($13,117 per kg). Iridium has two naturally occurring isotopes, 191Ir and 193Ir. Irradiation by slow neutrons would transmute these isotopes into 192Ir and 194Ir, with short half-lives of 73 days and 19 hours, respectively; the predominant decay pathway for both of these isotopes is beta-minus decay into 192Pt and 194Pt.
Read more about this topic: Synthesis Of Precious Metals
Famous quotes containing the word platinum:
“Flouncing your skirts, you blueness of joy, you flirt of
politeness,
You leap, you intelligence, essence of wheelness with silvery nose,
And your platinum clocks of excitement stir like the hairs of a
fern.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)