# How to recycle Jewelry Grade Rhodium?



## Chris1985 (Jan 22, 2018)

Hey everyone, I usually recycle rhodium plated white gold using the aqua regia method. The Rhodium plating is the first metal to separate from the rest of the gold alloy, so I've accumulated a worthy amount of rhodium shavings from the process. I'm wondering if there is a certain chemical formula that I can use to recycle the shavings into jewelry grade rhodium for later use in electroplating. Any information will help, thanks.


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 22, 2018)

Especially read the posts by Lou and freechemist

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=14894


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## goldandsilver123 (Feb 4, 2018)

I'm facing the same challenge.

I'm starting to learn how to make a rhodium plating bath starting with pure rhodium and then to procede with these flakes.

I still didn't analyse the flakes but certainly they aren't pure enough.

To purify there's 2 routes that I found in Brauer (Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry Volume 2) one of them is in Ammen's book (Recovery and Refining of Precious Metals):

Impure Rh solution then is made K3[Rh(NO2)6] or (NH4)3[Rh(NO2)6] that is a solid and must be filtered, this solid can be dissolved and reprecipitated.
or
Impure Rh solution then is made [RhCl(NH3)5]Cl2 that is a solid and must be filtered, this solid can be dissolved and reprecipitated.

These procedures are oversimplified (more information can be found in these books), and I do not garante that it will work. I'm searching that myself.

To dissolve rhodium you have 2 main routes, dissolve in boiling, refluxing, sulfuric acid or fuse with potassium/sodium hydrogen sulfate or potassium pyrosulfate.


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