Rhodium Chloride, Purity : >99%

Rhodium was discovered in 1803 by william wollaston. He collaborated with smithson tennant in a commercial venture, part of which was to produce pure platinum for sale. The first step in the process was to dissolve ordinary platinum in aqua regia (nitric acid + hydrochloric acid). Not all of it went into solution and it left behind a black residue. (tennant investigated this residue and from it he eventually isolated osmium and iridium.) wollaston concentrated on the solution of dissolved platinum which also contained palladium. He removed these metals by precipitation and was left with a beautiful red solution from which he obtained rose red crystals. These were sodium rhodium chloride, na3rhcl6. From them he eventually produced a sample of the metal itself.