Are Ruthenium Thick Film Resistors Worth It ?

[orvi]

Is anyone aware of whether small amounts of Ir or Ru would follow the potential small amount of Pt into solution with the silver? I can’t say I have any experience with that and the literature rarely even mentions the Pt following the silver into solution with HNO3, let alone Ir or Ru.
To mention again this procedure I’ve talked about is just theoretical.

Yeah, I leaned it myself when doing experiments on parting PtPdRh mixtures. Pt is also soluble in plain nitric, and so is Rh, if they are finely divided. They all react with acid, but Pt and Rh much much slower than Pd. They quickly reach equilibrium point, where they stop dissolving (maybe it has something with stability of Pt nitrate salts in solution). If present alloyed in something, that is completely different story. As far as I know, Ir and Ru are more resistant to acid attack. But this may be too general, and there could be some exceptions.
As you say, not a lot of chemistry of PGMs is known for general public. Lots of secret research has been done in private companies and refineries regarding mainly separation of them.

 

[Hombressino]

I doubt that by processing via HNO3 or AR, ruthenium get oxidized from metallic state... Yeah, if you already have some oxidized Ru, RuO2 or something like that, it could be possible...

Generally true, but I believe Svaethger meant RuO2 in the sentence "From seeing the video I believe most of the Ru was converted to RuO4 and likely escapes into the wind.." Ruthenimu in Thick Film Resistors is already in RuO2 form, as far as I know.

 

[Svaethger]

Generally true, but I believe Svaethger meant RuO2 in the sentence "From seeing the video I believe most of the Ru was converted to RuO4 and likely escapes into the wind.." Ruthenimu in Thick Film Resistors is already in RuO2 form, as far as I know.

Yeah, to clarify, I meant the Ru in the resistors is already RuO2, not metallic, and both HNO3 and Cl2 will oxidise RuO2 further into RuO4, which is very volatile. RuO2 will also reduce HCl to Cl2, so that’s not a good option either. As the RuO4 is volatile, I believe dusan evaporated most of his Ru as RuO4 and that’s why he couldn’t recover any, either way to where it went, his method with resistors was quite frankly suicidal in this regard and should not be replicated.

 

[kurtak]

quite frankly suicidal in this regard and should not be replicated.

And the bottom line is --- JUST DON"T DO IT

Kind of like adding acid to cyanide - JUST DON"T DO IT

Kurt

 

[GypsyJr]

I just noticed this thread and I thought I'd mention that there was a guy on YouTube claiming that Ruthenim oxide isn't soluble in AR but it does dissolve in bleach and something else. I don't recall what the other thing was and I couldn't find the video with a quick seach. I'll try to find it later today. That video didn't mention anything about Ruhenium being more hazardous than any other PGM and I didn't see any explosions. Not saying it isn't more hazardous or explosive because I have no clue but it may be a way around those issues or it may be bs.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I just noticed this thread and I thought I'd mention that there was a guy on YouTube claiming that Ruthenim oxide isn't soluble in AR but it does dissolve in bleach and something else. I don't recall what the other thing was and I couldn't find the video with a quick seach. I'll try to find it later today. That video didn't mention anything about Ruhenium being more hazardous than any other PGM and I didn't see any explosions. Not saying it isn't more hazardous or explosive because I have no clue but it may be a way around those issues or it may be bs.

Welcome to us.
Well hazards do not necessary mean explosive.
Much more common is toxic.
And all PGM salts are toxic and strong sensitizers, you will never know when you have been overexposed.
We have members that have died from Platinosis.
Ruthenium and Osmium are two very special PGMs since they form volatile TetraOxides.
These evaporates and contaminate everything in the immediate area, unless contained.
They sublime into the air at room temperature.
OsO₄ will (not can) cause permanent damages to your eyes, even blindness and more ailments.
I'm not sure about the Ru₄ , but both has an affinity to organic fatty tissues.

Edit for spelling and adjust context a bit.

 

[Ultrax]

I have noticed that a lot of modern electronics have ruthenium oxide resistors.
Is it actually worth the time and money attempting to recover the metal ( $ 265 /oz ) from such small components ?
.
https://i.postimg.cc/KvmmwyV5/Ruthenium-Resistor.jpg

Not only is it quite dangerous, but it's also not worth the efforts from a financial perspective. Working with ruthenium requires a highly qualified chemist. It is usually used by chemists in research laboratories. Most likely, you will not be able to convert it into metallic form at all, and the risk of poisoning is very high.

 

[eaglekeeper]

there was a guy on YouTube claiming that Ruthenim oxide isn't soluble in AR but it does dissolve in bleach and something else

Nurdrage

 

[DougAdams]

I worked for 38 years with a business that made think film ink (or as we called it paste)
We would keep our Ru scrap (paste, wipes, powder etc) separate from the other metals as we knew refining for Ru recovery typically meant giving up on getting any other metal back.
When it was sent for refining we would tell the refiner for this batch focus on Ru.
For any material that had mixed metal, Ru with Ag or Pd we would generally ignore the Ru and ask the refiner to focus on the other metals.
When the Ru price went crazy a few years ago that decision got a little more difficult.
It comes down to how much Ru is in the scrap vs the other metals, the value of each metal at the time, the cost of the refining (Ru was more expensive to extract) and which would return the most to you.