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Rhodium Foil/Sheet
Available Configurations
Properties common to all products in this list
| Purity | Thickness | Sides | Temper ⓘ | Support | Other Variant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99.85% to 99.9% | 0.00025 mm (ultra-thin foil) to 1 mm (sheet) | 5 mm to 300 mm | As Rolled | 0.125 mm polyester (for all thicknesses ≤ 0.001 mm) | Light Tight (Pinhole Free) |
Need custom configurations? Please contact us.
Key Features
Rhodium Foil at 99.9% purity is a high-purity precious metal foil from one of the rarest and most chemically resistant platinum group elements, combining outstanding chemical inertness with exceptional UV and visible reflectivity and high stiffness in a foil format suited to optical, analytical, and catalytic applications:
Superior Chemical Resistance — More Inert Than Platinum or Gold in Aggressive Environments
Where platinum and gold are eventually attacked by hot concentrated acids or aggressive oxidizing environments, rhodium maintains its chemical inertness and surface integrity — resisting oxidation at elevated temperatures, not tarnishing in air, and retaining its characteristic bright, silvery-white surface under conditions that would degrade all other common precious metal foils.
Highest UV & Visible Reflectivity of Any Precious Metal Foil
Rhodium's characteristic bright surface delivers higher UV and visible reflectivity than platinum, gold, or silver foil — making Rhodium Foil the material of choice for precision optical mirrors in UV instrumentation, reflectance reference surfaces, and optical components in analytical instruments where a chemically stable, high-reflectance foil surface must be maintained across the full UV and visible spectrum without tarnish or degradation.
High Stiffness & Strength in the Hard-Worked Condition
In the hard-worked condition, rhodium foil is exceptionally stiff and strong relative to other precious metal foils — approaching the mechanical behavior of a harder structural metal while retaining the surface stability and chemical inertness of a platinum group element. This combination gives it good dimensional stability as a precision foil component in optical, sensor, and analytical applications where softer precious metal foils would deform.
Wide Thickness Range with Polyester Support for Ultra-Thin Gauges
Available from 0.00025 mm ultra-thin film through to 1 mm sheet, with polyester support backing for the most delicate thicknesses and sheet sizes from 5 mm to 300 mm — accommodating the full range of fabrication and experimental requirements from free-standing foil components to substrate-supported thin films for surface science and thin-film electronics applications.
Unique Catalytic Selectivity for Heterogeneous Catalysis Research
Rhodium's well-documented and unusual catalytic selectivity for specific oxidation, reduction, and coupling reactions — combined with its chemical inertness as a substrate — makes Rhodium Foil a reproducible platform for heterogeneous catalysis studies, surface science investigations of its catalytic behavior, and thin-film deposition work where the foil's own surface chemistry is part of the experimental design.
Industrial Applications
Rhodium Foil is used across UV optics, high-temperature sensing, catalysis, analytical instrumentation, and thin-film research wherever the combination of chemical inertness beyond platinum, outstanding UV reflectivity, and mechanical stiffness must be provided in a foil form factor:
- ✦ Precision Optical Mirrors in UV Instrumentation
- Used as precision optical mirror foil in UV instrumentation including spectrophotometers, synchrotron beamline optics, and UV analytical instruments, where rhodium's higher UV reflectivity than any other precious metal foil and its resistance to tarnish and oxidation ensure that mirror surface quality and calibrated reflectance are maintained across extended service without the surface degradation that limits platinum or aluminium UV mirror alternatives.
- ✦ High-Temperature Sensor Substrates & Thermocouple Sheathing
- Applied as high-temperature sensor substrates and thermocouple protection sheathing in analytical instruments and process monitoring systems, where rhodium's resistance to oxidation at elevated temperatures and its chemical inertness in aggressive atmospheres ensure that the sensor substrate or sheath does not react with or contaminate the measurement environment — properties that make it reliable in conditions that would degrade platinum sheathing over time.
- ✦ Catalytic Component Liners & Heterogeneous Catalysis Research
- Used as catalytic component liners and as the active foil substrate in heterogeneous catalysis research, where rhodium's well-documented catalytic selectivity for oxidation, reduction, and coupling reactions — combined with its foil format's high surface-area-to-volume ratio — provides a reproducible, chemically inert catalytic platform for both applied process chemistry and fundamental surface reactivity studies.
- ✦ Thin-Film Electronics & Analytical Instrument Components
- Employed as a substrate and component material in thin-film electronics and analytical instrument assemblies where contamination or surface degradation must be excluded — with rhodium's chemical inertness, resistance to tarnish, and stable surface chemistry ensuring that deposited thin films are not compromised by substrate reactivity across the service life of the device or instrument.
- ✦ Surface Science, Emission Spectroscopy & Thin-Film Deposition Research
- Used in research as a well-characterized substrate for surface science investigations of rhodium's unusual catalytic selectivity, emission spectroscopy work, and thin-film deposition studies — where the foil's chemical inertness, defined surface chemistry, and availability across a wide thickness range provide a controlled, reproducible platform for experimental programs that require a noble metal substrate with properties distinguishable from platinum or gold.
Material Properties
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Atomic number | 45 |
| Crystal structure | Face centred cubic |
| Electronic structure | Kr 4d⁸ 5s¹ |
| Valences shown | 2,3,4,5,6 |
| Atomic weight( amu ) | 102.9055 |
| Thermal neutron absorption cross-section( Barns ) | 150 |
| Photo-electric work function( eV ) | 4.6 |
| Atomic radius - Goldschmidt( nm ) | 0.134 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 1/ 7.46 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 3/ 31.1 |
| Ionisation potential( No./eV ) | 2/ 18.1 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Material condition | Hard |
| Material condition | Soft |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.26 |
| Poisson's ratio | 0.26 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 276 |
| Bulk modulus( GPa ) | 276 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 379 |
| Tensile modulus( GPa ) | 379 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 300 |
| Hardness - Vickers( kgf mm⁻² ) | 120 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 1380-2070 |
| Tensile strength( MPa ) | 690-760 |
| Yield strength( MPa ) | 69-275 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Electrical resistivity( µOhmcm ) | 4.7@20°C |
| Temperature coefficient( K⁻¹ ) | 0.0044@0-100°C |
| Thermal emf against Pt (cold 0C - hot 100C)( mV ) | 0.7 |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Boiling point( C ) | 3727 |
| Density( gcm⁻³ ) | 12.4@20°C |
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Melting point( C ) | 1965 |
| Latent heat of evaporation( J g⁻¹ ) | 4800 |
| Latent heat of fusion( J g⁻¹ ) | 210 |
| Specific heat( J K⁻¹ kg⁻¹ ) | 244@25°C |
| Thermal conductivity( W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ ) | 150@0-100°C |
| Coefficient of thermal expansion( x10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ ) | 8.5@0-100°C |
Tolerances
| Thickness | <0.01mm | ±25% |
|---|---|---|
| Thickness | 0.01mm - 0.05mm | ±15% |
| Thickness | >0.05mm | ±10% |
| Linear dimension | <100mm | ±1mm |
| Linear dimension | >=100mm | +2 / -1% |