RHODIUM (IV) OXIDE

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.

The Uses of RHODIUM (IV) OXIDE

Rhodium(IV) oxide has metal anode applications. It has application for the prediction of drug transport properties.

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.