Palladium is a metal used in several different product types. The stuff is used to create some of the internal catalyst material for the catalytic converters in vehicles and it is used in all sorts of electronic devices. With the demand for the metal, it is quite expensive selling for about $800 per ounce. Researchers in Japan have used nano technology and alchemy to create a new alloy that has similar properties to palladium.
The nano tech the researchers used allows them to combine rhodium and silver to make the new alloy. Those two materials do not typically mix and the resulting allow has properties similar to those of palladium. This is an important discovery because most of the palladium sources are in Russia and Africa only.
The team used nano tech to "nebulizer" rhodium and silver gradually and then mixed them with heated alcohol to get them to mix at the atomic level. The research into the new alloy is a result of Japan trying to reduce its need for rare earth materials from other countries.