Rhodium - History

History

Rhodium (Greek rhodon (ῥόδον) meaning "rose") was discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston, soon after his discovery of palladium. He used crude platinum ore presumably obtained from South America. His procedure involved dissolving the ore in aqua regia and neutralizing the acid with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). He then precipitated the platinum as ammonium chloroplatinate by adding ammonium chloride, NH₄Cl. Most other metals like copper, lead, palladium and rhodium were precipitated with zinc. Diluted nitric acid dissolved all but palladium and rhodium, which were dissolved in aqua regia, and the rhodium was precipitated by the addition of sodium chloride as Na₃·nH₂O. After being washed with ethanol, the rose-red precipitate was reacted with zinc, which displaced the rhodium in the ionic compound and thereby released the rhodium as free metal.

After the discovery the rare element had only minor applications, for example by the turn of the century rhodium-containing thermocouples were used to measure temperatures up to 1800°C. The first major application was electroplating for decorative uses and as corrosion resistant coating. The introduction of the three way catalytic converter by Volvo in 1976 increased the demand for rhodium. The previous catalytic converters used platinum or palladium while the three way catalytic converter used rhodium to reduce the amount of NOx in the exhaust.