Abstract:In China, aqua regia, a process of wet process, is mainly used to recover platinum group metals (PGMs). However, due to its disadvantages of longer dissolution time and higher dissolution temperature, this process needs to be further optimized. Using Pt-Rh alloys powder (containing about 10% Rh and 90% Pt) as raw material, chlorine gas was added into traditional solution system of aqua regia in a self-made reactor to improve oxidizing ability of Pt-Rh alloys. By adding iron based ionic liquid to enrich reaction products of PtCl62- and RhCl63-, rapid dissolution of Pt-Rh alloy at low temperature was realized. Effects of aqua regia composition, L/S, chlorine consumption, reaction temperature and ionic liquid dosage on dissolution rate of Pt-Rh alloys were investigated. The results show that solution time of Pt-Rh alloys is shortened to 1.52 h under the optimal reaction conditions. Purity of platinum and rhodium is more than 99.95%, and recoveries are 99.2% and 98.6%, respectively. Therefore, dissolution efficiency rises by about 78.29% after traditional process was improved. This study has great potential for industrial application.