The Purolite™ Resin Periodic Table

Iridium is a transition metal with an atomic number of 77. It is a tough, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group. It is the most corrosion-resistant metal known, and it will not corrode when exposed to acid, aqua regia, molten metals or silicates at high temperatures.

Applications
Iridium is primarily used as a hardening agent in platinum alloys, but it is also used in various other applications, including heavy-duty electrical contacts, spark plugs, and crucible containers used at high temperatures.

Challenges
Iridium is fairly scarce and is typically recovered as a by-product of nickel and copper mining operations. Optimizing the amount of iridium removed in complex hydrometallurgical processes is difficult.

Solutions
Resin technology is used for iridium recovery from hydrochloric acid solutions.

Recovery from Hydrochloric Acid Solutions

Iridium recovered from the waste of hydrochloric acid solutions isolates the element while improving the solution's efficiency. In addition to iridium, palladium and platinum can be separated out in these solutions. Selective recovery from acidic liquors may be done using Purolite™ Puromet™ MTS9140 resin, with thiourea functionality.

For more information, visit Metals Plating.