RHODIUM(III) OXIDE HYDRATE

Chemical Properties

Rhodium, together with platinum, palladium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium, is one of the platinum- group metals in Group VIII of the Periodic Table. Rhodium metal is a white, hard, ductile, malleable solid with a bluish-gray luster.

Potential Exposure

Rhodium has few applications by itself, as in rhodium plating of white gold jewelry or plat- ing of electrical parts, such as commutator slip rings, but, mainly, rhodium is used as a component of platinum alloys. Rhodium-containing catalysts have been proposed for use in automotive catalytic converters for exhaust gas cleanup.

Shipping

Flammable powder, Hazard Class: 4.1; Labels: 4.1-Flammable solid.

Incompatibilities

Flammable as a dust, fume, or powder may form explosive mixture with air. Incompatible with strong oxidizers (chlorates, nitrates, peroxides, permanga- nates, perchlorates, chlorine, bromine, fluorine, etc.); con- tact may cause fires or explosions. Keep away from alkaline materials, strong bases, strong acids, oxoacids, epoxides, bromine pentafluoride, and bromine trifluoride; chlorine trifluoride; oxygen difluoride.

Waste Disposal

Recovery in view of the high economic value. Recovery techniques for recycling of rhodium in plating wastes and spent catalysts have been described in the literature.