Make your own Platinum!

[budullewraagh]

Take iridium 193 (natural abudance=62.7%) and bombard it with neutrons.

for the neutrons, just use a neutron gun (try using americium-241 from smoke alarms with aluminum foil in front of it, or better yet radium-226 from luminous dial clocks with beryllium in front of it then make a casing out of lead and poke a hole in one end of it). every Ir isotope above 193 yields beta- decay with quite low half-lives. yep, this means that within hours you'll have mostly platinum. only problem is that the only reasonably stable Pt isotopes are 190, 192, 194 196 and 198, so you'll end up with some gold and then mercury quite quickly. still, i am sure you will have quite a bit of stable Pt.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Be sure you have a Geiger counter and a dosimeter handy...

[YT2095]

this means that within hours you'll have mostly platinum.

that`s a bit ambitious to say the very least, you`ll maybe get a few atoms converted after that time using such a weak source, you`de need a time period within the region of decades to get anything like a useable outer coating

 

and sadly the iridium would probably cost you as much as the platium would if you just went out an bought it

 

 

Nice Idea and Thinking though

[budullewraagh]

the source is weak?

[YT2095]

in respect of counts per second.

[bdunshee]

Sounds like a wonderful idea. Instead of the americium-241 I think I'll scrape the uranium galze from thousands of pre WWII Faberware Dinner Plates. (Post WWII there was no 235 in the mix.)

[YT2095]

LOL, and you`de have to sell more platinum than you could make to get the plates )

 

 

I love it ))

[bdunshee]

Where's the fun in that.

[YT2095]

you make a good point with regards to the "Fun" aspect, but when it comes to Platinum, I can`t help but see it from a financial point of view either.

I mean if you`re going to DO something like that and put all the effort and risk in, you may as well make it pay as well

[apathy]

wow, i looked it up and iridium is quite a bit cheaper than platinum per ounce, much to my surprise

 

http://www.platinum.matthey.com/prices/

 

For July Pt=$811/oz Ir=$207/oz 811 is the highest i've ever seen it!

 

But, buying isotopically enriched Ir would be a different story.

Not to mention paying for beam time at a neutron source.

 

[MolecularMan14]

Oh, Ive heard that platinum was much higher back then (maybe the 70's or 80's, but back then gold was actually about $800/oz too)

But can u imagine what would happen if someone were to perfect this process, could you imagine the platinum economy, when everyone and their grandmother will be making their own platinum.

But if it is perfected, I would love to be one of the first to use it (CHA-CHING!!! $-$-$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$)

Anyway, its a cool thought.