Abstract: The content of 17 impurity elements in rhodium powder was determined by arc direct reading emission spectrometry. The rhodium powder was mixed and ground with buffer (toner, lithium carbonate, sodium fluoride according to 7:1:2 mass ratio) to prepare the test sample. The excitation time of single sample was less than 1 min, andthe optimal spectral collection time of 17 impurity elements in rhodium powder was in the range of 15-55 s. Linear relationships between mass fraction and spectral intensity of 17 elements were found in the definite ranges, with detection limit (3s) in the range of 0.018 3-1.302 μg·g^-1. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of rhodium powder sample, giving values of recovery ranged from 92.2% to 105%. Values of intra-day and inter-day RSDs (n=5) found were in the range of 6.9%-19% and 1.5%-5.1% respectively. The results obtained by this method were consistent with those of ICP-AES.