![]() Like most other metals, though, slowing demand and over-supply brought prices for iridium sponge and iridium powder downward in 2013. The results was a four-fold increase in iridium consumption between 20. Growth in the LED market led to greater demand for iridium alloy crucibles, which are used to grow substrate materials for LED production. This sharp increase in iridium prices was driven by new demand from the light emitting diode (LED) industry. By the end of the year, iridium was selling for over US$ 1000 per troy ounce. Prior to 2010, the price for iridium was fairly stable at around US$ 450 per ounce, however, this changed in the first half of 2010 as a shortage of the metal led prices to over 60 percent. Super-strong jewelry is also made of an iridium and platinum alloy.Iridium prices have fluctuated between US$ 300 and US$ 1100 per troy ounce over the past decade. A compound of osmium and iridium, called osmiridium, is used in fountain pen tips and compass bearings. It is also used on some optical lenses to reduce glare. It is also used to make devices needed for high temperatures and in electrical contacts. Iridium's principal use is to harden platinum by making a platinum alloy. Though brittle, iridium can be worked if heated to a white heat of 2,200 to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 to 1,500 degrees Celsius), according to Encyclopedia Britannica. "They speculated that it was caused by a meteor and linked this to the extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years prior," explained Simson. In 1980 scientist Luis Alvarez and his son Water Alvarez found significant amounts of iridium in a certain part of the Earth's crust, spread out all over the Earth's surface. It is so dense that it mainly exists in the Earth's core, rather than crust," said Amanda Simson, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of New Haven.īut some iridium exists in the crust. "Iridium is one of the densest and rarest of Earth's natural elements. Pure iridium is so rare on the Earth's crust that there is only about 2 parts per billion located in the crust, according to Chemistry Explained. Ore containing iridium is found in Brazil, the United States, Myanmar, South Africa, Russia and Australia. ![]() Today, iridium is commercially recovered as a byproduct of copper or nickel mining. However, the international prototype kilogram, which defines a kilogram, also made of a platinum and platinum-iridium alloy, is still in use around the world. ![]() The meter was redefined in terms of the orange-red spectral line of krypton. This bar was replaced as the definition of a meter in 1960, though. Though the metal itself isn't rainbow colored, it is called this because of its multi-colored compounds.īecause iridium is very resistant to corrosion, the standard meter bar was made of 90 percent platinum and 10 percent iridium. The name iridium comes from the Latin word iris, which means rainbow. At the Royal Institution in London he announced his findings and named one element iridium and the other osmium. After this treatment, the residue separated into two new elements. Tennant discovered iridium by dissolving crude platinum in diluted aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids), then by treating the black residue left behind in turn with alkalis and acids, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
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