Some metals such as nickel, aluminum and steel are ubiquitous in our daily lives, and can be found in coinage, cookware, bridges, and more. Other metals, known as “precious metals”, are rarer and more expensive—but if you’ve ever owned a smartphone or taken medication, then you’ve likely benefitted from them as well.
An average iPhone contains approximately 0.034 grams of gold and 0.34 grams of silver, as well as smaller amounts of rare Earth elements such as yttrium, terbium, and neodymium. Precious metals are also used in the large-scale syntheses of commercial drugs. A common example is palladium, which catalyzes “cross-coupling” reactions—in which two molecules are coupled together—used to prepare Losartan (to treat high blood pressure) and Diflunisal (to treat fever and pain).
