Rhodium (Rh) is a transition metal with atomic number 45. In its neutral state, rhodium has the electronic configuration [Kr] 4d^8 5s^1. To determine the number of valence electrons, we focus on the outermost electron shell, which in this case is the 5s and 4d orbitals. The 5s orbital contains 1 electron, and the 4d orbital contains 8 electrons. Adding these two together, we find that rhodium has a total of 9 valence electrons.