Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Silver Rhodium Separation

vehmently - 21-4-2018 at 09:25

vehmently - 21-4-2018 at 09:26

Oops, wrong button. Anyone know a method to separate silver and rhodium ?

CobaltChloride - 21-4-2018 at 09:51

Literature seems to say that rhodium doesn't react with nitric acid, but silver definitely does. Soaking the piece in nitric acid should dissolve the silver as silver nitrate, releasing NOx in the process and leave behind the rhodium. Problems may arise when your piece has a lot more rhodium than silver because of the phenomenon explained in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX4Iq11j2dI . Do you know the percentage of each metal in the piece?


[Edited on 21-4-2018 by CobaltChloride]

vehmently - 21-4-2018 at 10:20

Wouldnt nitric work ?

aga - 21-4-2018 at 10:24

Quote: Originally posted by vehmently  
Wouldnt nitric work ?

That's what CobaltChloride said 30 minutes ago.

vehmently - 21-4-2018 at 12:51

Thanks for the replies. I was offline for a bit and miss f the post.the Rh content is fairly low on average but might get up to 25% by wgt

CobaltChloride - 21-4-2018 at 13:34

Then the method I described above should work.

Fleaker - 30-4-2018 at 07:13

I don't know how soluble rhodium is in silver, or vice versa. Check a phase diagram! I seem to recall fire assay on silver never recovers rhodium well.