Is Ruthenium Jewelry Dangerous?

In this video we explore whether ruthenium jewelry is safe by seeing how it reacts with the common household chemical bleach.

It's well known that ruthenium is a highly resilient metal capable of withstanding chemical attack by very corrosive acids like nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, aqua regia, etc. So it would be make sense to fashion jewelry out of such a resistant substance. But ruthenium is highly susceptible to attack by sodium hypochlorite. To test this we immerse a ruthenium plated ring into household bleach. Unfortunately the ruthenium plating very clearly dissolves off within minutes, producing sodium ruthenate and peruthenate salts as well as bubbles of ruthenium tetroxide gas.

Since these substances are highly toxic. And bleach is a commonly encountered substance in everyday life, it is recommended to discontinue use of ruthenium for jewelry.

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[NurdRage]

Currently building up a new lab and this is my first video in it. I still have a lot of work to do and i still have to get all my equipment out of storage will take awhile, but i'm making progress. Anyway, I hope everyone is staying safe during this pandemic and wish you all the best. We'll get through this and a year or two from now we'll look back upon these months and laugh. But for now, protect yourselves as best you can. Don't panic, but don't bury your head in the sand either.



Anyway. Videos in the near future will most likely be aqueous chemistry of some sort, maybe some electrochemistry too. Until my lab is fully built i won't be able safely do non-aqueous chemistry yet.

[sargon]

"I still won't buy ruthenium-based jewellery for my non-existent girlfriend, plated, alloyed or otherwise"
Wait, so is your non-existent girlfriend that's plated, alloyed or otherwise?

[remanjecarter]

"I still wouldn't buy ruthenium based jewelry for my non-existent girlfriend"
I felt that, hypothetical scenarios, nonetheless gotta be safe

[josephlieberman]

i worked in a factory where we made Karar Gold tubing and used CNC auto lathes to produce wedding bands, one 18k yellow alloy we used contained a fraction of a percent of ruthenium i was told this acts like a seed to initiate faster solidification or narrow the temperature window for the liquid state of the homogeneous final product. Ruthenium and all noble metals are amazing.

[Techience]

Imagine you're wearing a Ruthenium ring while doing laundry and all the sudden your hand falls off and your lungs blow up

[otakuribo]

One day, Dr. N. Butyl Lithium will meet Dr. Ruth E. Nium and discover they have fantastic chemistry

[valiantdiesel]

My old chemistry teacher speaks of this channel fondly, he recalls meeting you at some point but obviously would never tell us who you were, given the modulator

[science_and_anonymous]

Nurdrage, you are my inspiration for studying chemistry. Thank you. You have no idea how much you mean to me. You have saved my life.

[lucaswang]

It's great to have you back! Can't wait for a tour of your new lab :)

[zazaaji]

I'm glad to see you're still around after 4 months of no uploads. Your videos are always well above my level of intelligence for comprehension, but I still love watching them regardless.

[charleschidsey]

Welcome back! We missed you. So glad to hear you’re working on getting a new lab set up. Looking forward to your future posts. Take care and keep the faith.

[tomlutman]

Glad to see your getting back in your groove. You have gotten me going on building my own little lab to "explore the science". Normally, I'm more comfortable 'building' a lab, not operating one. Stay safe and quit arguing with yourself whether the beakers should go here or there....

[lovelymaylopez]

I was looking into buying me some jewelry and came across a ruthenium ring. That's what brought me here. Thank you for this video, it was very informative.

[Jerry_S.]

Melts away Ruthenium and reveals gold, making the ring look even better. WIN

[TheDarkelvenangel]

Glad to see a new video and see you've got a lab again. This was very interesting and goes to show that companies are more interested in profit that the wellbeing of there customers.

[ThePeterDislikeShow]

Gold dissolves in bleach and HCl mixture too.

[TotalRookie_LV]

I'd imagine that putting ones hand into a concentrated bleach even without a rhutenium ring on it would itself have detrimental effects on health.

[diapysik]

Hey there Nurdrage, I watched your old Ruthenium video when I was a lot younger, and when I was taking forensic science in school I found out than Ruthenium tetraoxide, the same thing you mention as being highly toxic is sometimes used in developing fingerprints, I'd be really interested to see if you could demonstrate how that works. Also much love, hope you're in good health having a good time.

[Keelow]

Thank you so much for the information, I was going to buy a ring made from this but I use cleaners and bleach in my day to day life I’m glad I didn’t get it.

[KaedennYT]

Thank you for the upload. We missed you. And thank you for the PSA on Ruthenium jewelry.