My old pal Osmium! 😊

Thank you for this exploration of Osmium. Happy new year!

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

Happy new year to you too! I barely got thin one out with a one week case of laryngitis! Ron

Osmium is cheaper than gold for two reasons:1) It's a BYPRODUCT of other extraction processes, as mentioned. This means its extraction and production are essentially low cost and it would be considered a waste product if no uses were found for it. And 2) it doesn't have nearly the same number of applications, nor is it required in the same amounts, as gold. Compare this to irridium, rhodium, or palladium, with similar abundances, but much higher expense since their applications in industry, mostly as catalysts, are far greater.

I love the Periodic element videos. I can see you are celebrating the New Year with a video. Osmium, ruthenium and iron all the very stable hexacyano metal II complex. K4Fe(CN)6, K4Ru(CN)6 and K4Os(CN)6. These are all low spin d6 complexes. That was mentioned in an inorganic chemistry text I had 8n graduate school years ago. The alkali metal does not have to be potassium.

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for adding that. Not being a chemist, it's great to learn all these additional tidbits! Ron

Osmium tetroxide used to be used for staining fingerprints, which couldn't have been too healthy for detectives. They have much less toxic alternatives now.

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

Well, THAT never showed up in my researches! I'll have to look that application up. I know they use superglue to reveal fingerprints. I guess that makes sense since it binds to lipids. Ron

@sydhenderson6753

5 ай бұрын

@@ronhipschman I've seen mentioned a few places, including "Nature's Building Blocks." It's similar to using osmium tetroxide for biological stains.

Oh yeah, phonograph needles! Heh. My parents had an old record player with a label on the back stating it had been converted from 25 to 60 cycle 120vac. Neat stuff. I love the detail in your explanations.

@ronhipschman

4 ай бұрын

Sounds like it was brought in from Europe to the US. Ron

@waynesworldofsci-tech

4 ай бұрын

@@ronhipschman Nope. Made in Canada, stayed in Canada.

If only both osmium and iridium weren’t so darn expensive and rare as they would’ve made some much better radiation shielding materials than toxic lead due to their superior densities and low toxicities.

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

I believe that Osmium does slowly oxidize, producing Osmium tetroxide, so it's not entirely non-toxic, but you are right, they's be awesome for that job. Ron

@sillysad3198

5 ай бұрын

i take ten times that of lead over Osmium in terms of workplace safety. i know how not to eat lead so i am fine with it.

@Mace2124

4 ай бұрын

Only oxidizes to osmium tetroxide if it's powdered or sintered. Arc melted beads won't oxidize.

14:53 where can I get this graph of elements sorted by atom size?

@ronhipschman

3 ай бұрын

@Gelatinocyte2, You can get this graph (and MANY more!) here: periodictable.com/Properties/A/AtomicRadius.ssp.html Ron PS. Thank you Theodore Gray!

this OsO4 fascinates me in a weird way: can we create a gas that is heavier than a liquid at the same temp and pressure?

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

sillysad3198, Since a liquid typically take up a thousandth (or less) the space of a gas, I don't think it's possible to make a liquid float on the gas of the same substance. Please provide examples in case I missed something (always possible...). Ron

@sillysad3198

5 ай бұрын

@@ronhipschman it is an open question. why same substance? the whole point is to float a light liquid on something as heavy as OsO4 gas (or perhaps there are heavier gases...)

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

OK... Let's put some constraints on this too. Let's say we want to do this at room temperature (STP). A little googling around led me to this: Densest gas: Tungsten Hexafluoride (WF6) with a density of .0124 gm/cm^3 Least dense liquid: 2-methyl butane, with a density of .6201 gn/cm^3 SO, sorry, the liquid is 50 times denser than the gas. I leave it an exercise for the reader to extend this exercise outside STP. Ron

you sounded so tragic: "there is no Os in us" as if you planned your entire life to harvest precious metals from humans.

@ronhipschman

5 ай бұрын

Yes, I'm going to called "Soylent Osmium". Ron