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Testing rhodium for purity at home?
Is it really possible?
And what it the best way to see if rhodium jewelry is real or fake?
Find out below!
TLDR- How to Tell if Rhodium is Real or Fake?
The best and most reliable way to tell whether rhodium is real or fake is do the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. This non-destructive technique measures the emitted X-rays after a sample is irradiated, revealing its elemental composition, including rhodium purity.
Alternatively, you can do a fire assay or cupellation which involves fusing the sample and measuring the resulting rhodium.
Obviously, these are the things only a professional jeweler can do.
See below the methods that don’t work so you don’t accidentally damage your rhodium-plated jewelry.
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Water?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Hydrogen Peroxide?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium With Vinegar?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium With a Lighter Flame or Fire?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Nitric Acid?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Magnets?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Iodine?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Toothpaste?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Eraser?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Bleach?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Sound?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Alcohol?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Lemon Juice?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Baking Soda?
- Is it Possible to Test Rhodium with Multimeter?
Here’s an awesome quiz about testing the purity of rhodium and rhodium-plated jewelry. Take it after you’ve read my guide for your best results.
Table of Contents
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Water?
No, testing rhodium at home with water isn’t possible. Rhodium is a noble metal that’s chemically inert and doesn’t react with water under normal conditions. Therefore, you can’t use water to determine if your jewelry is made of rhodium.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Hydrogen Peroxide?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with hydrogen peroxide.
Rhodium doesn’t react with hydrogen peroxide in any way where you can see if it’s real or fake.
Hydrogen peroxide is dangerous for rhodium-plated jewelry items when the plating is damaged or clipped. In severe case the plating might even come off from being exposed to hydrogen peroxide and this usually happen when people use this chemical to clean their jewelry.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium With Vinegar?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium with vinegar.
Vinegar is a weak acid and isn’t strong enough to react with rhodium. Rhodium is a noble metal, and vinegar doesn’t affect it in any way.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium With a Lighter Flame or Fire?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium with a lighter flame or a strong fire.
Rhodium has a high melting point of 1960 °C (3560 °F). A lighter flame generally won’t generate enough heat to melt or significantly alter the rhodium itself. Normally, you’d wat to see some surface changes when you expose a metal to flame but with rhodium there will be none.
Keep in mind that lighter flame could damage a rhodium plating of a jewelry item. Especially if the plating is very thin or already worn out.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Nitric Acid?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium with nitric acid. Rhodium as a noble metal doesn’t react to nitric acid and exposing rhodium jewelry to nitric acid won’t give you any conclusive results.
Rhodium plating over some other precious metals as base might react to nitric acid. Not because rhodium reacts to nitric acid, but because the plating is damaged or thin and covering a base metal that does react to nitric acid.
A good example is sterling silver because sterling silver tarnishes when exposed to nitric acid.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Magnets?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with magnets. Rhodium is paramagnetic, meaning it’s only weakly attracted to a magnetic field and doesn’t retain any magnetism after being exposed to a magnet.
Next, rhodium is often alloyed with other metals and these can be magnetic or ferromagnetic. But you wouldn’t know which metal in the alloy is responding to your magnetic without taking it to a professional jeweler for inspection.
So, you can’t use a magnet test to test for rhodium purity.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Iodine?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with iodine. Rhodium is a noble, non-reactive metal and iodine has no effect on rhodium. This means drops of iodine on a surface of a rhodium-plated jewelry item won’t give you any conclusive evidence.
Keep in mind that you can use iodine to test whether palladium is real or fake. This is important if you’re trying to use iodine to test a rhodium-plated palladium jewelry item.
In that case all that’s needed is for rhodium-plating to be thinned out or cracked and the palladium within will start to change color in response to iodine.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Toothpaste?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium with toothpaste. Rhodium as a noble metal is non-reactive and wont react in any way when exposed to toothpaste.
Remember that tooth paste is abrasive and it will scratch your rhodium jewelry if you place it on rhodium jewelry and leave it there for a few hours.
Rhodium-plated jewelry is especially vulnerable to toothpaste’s abrasive properties.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Eraser?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with eraser. Rubbing an eraser over a piece of rhodium jewelry won’t leave and clue on whether said piece of jewelry is made of authentic rhodium or not.
Rhodium-plated silver jewelry might react to silver because you can use silver to whether silver is real or fake.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Bleach?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with bleach. Rhodium is a very hard, noble metal that’s unreactive and that won’t respond to bleach.
Bleach corrodes weaker, susceptible metals but rhodium is too hard for it to be affected, especially upon brief exposure.
Bleach damages rhodium-plated jewelry when the plating is damaged or worn out.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Sound?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium at home with sound (rhodium ping test). Because rhodium doesn’t produce any distinct sound when tapped.
This is opposite to silver testing where you can use sound to test whether silver is real or fake.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Alcohol?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium at home with alcohol. Alcohol doesn’t affect rhodium in a way that would allow for its identification.
You can use rubbing alcohol for cleaning rhodium jewelry without causing damage exactly because alcohol doesn’t react with rhodium in any way.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Lemon Juice?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium at home with lemon juice. Rhodium as a noble metal is chemically inert and highly resistant to corrosion. This means it doesn’t readily react with weak acids like citric acid, which is the main component of lemon juice.
Lemon juice has zero effect on pure rhodium. Lemon juice can, however, further damage already damage or poorly done rhodium plating.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium at Home With Baking Soda?
No, it’s not possible to test rhodium at home with baking soda. Baking soda is mildly abrasive and you can use it to clean your jewelry.
But baking soda has no effect on rhodium and you won’t be able to use to test for rhodium purity.
Is it Possible to Test Rhodium with Multimeter?
No, it isn’t possible to test rhodium with multimeter.
Rhodium is a good electrical conductor and measuring overall conductivity with a multimeter might give some indication, but it won’t distinguish it specifically from other metals with similar conductivity properties.
Rhodium-plated jewelry also can’t be tested with multimeter because in that case a multimeter reading will be dominated by the underlying base metal, and not the thin rhodium layer.
How to Tell if Rhodium is Real or Fake? Simple and Free Tests You Can Do at Home! Conclusion
Testing rhodium jewelry for authenticity at home isn’t possible using common household methods.
Rhodium is a noble metal that’s chemically inert and highly resistant to corrosion, making it non-reactive to water, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, flame tests, nitric acid, magnets, iodine, toothpaste, erasers, bleach, sound tests, alcohol, lemon juice, baking soda, and multimeter readings.
These substances and tools either have no effect on rhodium or can potentially damage rhodium plating on jewelry.
Due to rhodium’s unique properties and high resistance to chemical reactions, professional testing methods are required to accurately determine if rhodium jewelry is authentic.
References:
- How can we tell if a jewelry is rhodium?- https://www.quora.com/How-can-we-tell-if-a-jewelry-is-rhodium
- How to tell if silver is plated in rhodium? https://www.reddit.com/r/jewelers/comments/17lge52/how_to_tell_if_silver_is_plated_in_rhodium/
- Tips for Quickly Identifying Precious White Metal Jewelry- https://www.mgsrefining.com/blog/tips-for-quickly-identifying-precious-white-metal-jewelry/
- Value of Rhodium and is my Rhodium Real?- https://www.everything-wedding-rings.com/value-of-rhodium-and-is-my-rhodium-real.html
Nikola Roza
Nikola Roza is a blogger behind Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined. He writes for bloggers who don't have huge marketing budget but still want to succeed. Nikola is passionate about precious metals IRAs and how to invest in gold and silver for a safer financial future. Learn about Nikola here.
