Talk:Osmium

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Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 11:27, 14 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 22:25, 27 May 2005).

Contents 1 Information Sources 2 Talk 3 Osmium 187 4 Pictures of Osmium 5 Query 6 Big Error 7 Sources? 8 Densest Isotope: 192Os? 9 Only High importance, not Top? 10 Color consistency 11 Densest element or densest substance? 12 Wrong word order? 13 Osmium vs. iridium density

[edit] Information Sources

Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Osmium. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Osmium Statistics and Information, USGS Periodic Table - Osmium, from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org). Data for the table were obtained from the sources listed on the subject page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but were reformatted and converted into SI units. Information in the main article concerning the infobox's value of Osmium's bulk modulus -- the value from a (controversial?) 2002 experimental result on osmium's compressibility -- was taken from journal articles by H Cynn et al in Phys. Rev. Lett. (original paper) and by B R Sahu et al in Phys. Rev. B (example of refutation), both of which are cited in full in the main article's References section.

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[edit] Talk

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[edit] Osmium 187

What is Osmium 187 used for?

why is isotopically pure 187-OS produced at all?

Is it just because pure 187-OS happens to occur in copper ore at Zhezkazgan / Kazakhzstan?

Why do interested parties pay 30,000 .. 60,000 USD (160,000?) per gram for isotopically pure 187-OS?

Best regards, Oscar

Osmium 187 can be used to increase the range and the power of atomic weaponry. AllStarZ 03:49, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_42a.html says otherwise.

http://www.milnet.com/nukeweap/Nfaq4-1.html points out that

If the precious metals actually had unique capabilities for enhancing the efficiency of fissile material, it might indeed be cost effective to employ them. No one is known to have actually used any of these materials as a fission tamper however.

http://www.wmdnews.org/Archives/Sep2002.html mentions:

Russian State Duma Security Committee member Viktor Ilyukhin (Communist) told Interfax on 11 Sep. 2002 that theKazakh copper monopoly Kazakhmys illegally producing osmium-187. Osmium-187 is not of any utility in nuclear weapons production and is more often used to gull people into paying excessive sums for radioactive material. There have been recent arrests of people in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Volgograd wih samples of Osmium 187 in their possession..

Many many other hits via google on this subject. For all these reasons, I've removed the statement from the article. mdf 01:16, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures of Osmium

I think we need a better picture of Osmium. The included photo doesn't do the metal justice. A picture that shows the beautiful blue cast of the metal would be nice.

-PiccoloNamek

Trust me, that stuff is extremely smelly, and toxic, so they often use it in an alloy if a large object requires its characteristics. AllStarZ 03:48, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

This is a beautiful image [1]

I have a beautiful sample of Osmium metal which I was able to capture in a photograph with the blue color. It has been uploaded and will soon be in this page. (Jdurg 00:39, 18 December 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Query

why are the first few words of the precaution section in red, no other element's are? (86.133.124.162)

Remnant of on older style. Removed. Femto 13:08, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

i have to do a project on this : (

[edit] Big Error

Osmium priices are grossly exaggerated! its price is abou $100/gram I'm correcting it accordingly

Resources: [2]

[3]

[edit] Sources?

The price is as others said greately exaggerated (1000 times!!). Also, i am failing to see any resource that Turkey has the most resources in the world for Osmium. i am having a feeling that this information is injected here (price and location) for a scam. Please correct or erase this false information.

The reserves of Osmium in Turkey and Bulgaria are unveryfied. Where is the citation? According to www.education.jlab.org, osmium and iridium are recovered primarily during the processing of Platinium and nickel ores. Thomas74 09:10, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

There are certainly big mistakes in evaluation of osmium sources. Osmium is one of the rearest elements. The main source of osmium is nickel-copper sulfide ores, which occur mainly in Canada, Cola and Taimyr Peninsulas (Russia), Australia ans South Africa. The Osmium assay in these ores only few ppb. The recovery of osmium is possible due to very high volatility of osmium tetroxide. Also together with other platinum metals osmium accompanies nickel until electrorefining operation, where osmium together with other PGM goes to the slime. Total production of osmium in the world is not more, than 50-60kg. Accordingly osmium reserve in the world is not more,than 1 metric ton. Osmium from nickel ores consists from six stable isotops (184,186,187,188,189,190). But some copper ores are enriched with rhenium, which exists as Re-187 radioactive isotope and slow transform in to Os-187 (Kazachstan). This osmium is recovered as pure isotope Os-187.

[edit] Densest Isotope: ¹⁹²Os?

The article at present states:

If one distinguishes different isotopes, then the heaviest ordinary substance would be ¹⁹²Os.

I haven't seen any source for this, and the mass number (A) for ¹⁹²Os is 308, while the mass number for ¹⁹³Ir is 309. (The two nuclei have the same number of neutrons — 116 — and differ in nucleon content only by a single extra proton in ¹⁹³Ir. Admittedly, density does not vary directly with mass number, but the presence of an extra nucleon in one of two such otherwise very similar atoms should at least raise questions.) If there is a source for the claim that ¹⁹²Os is the densest isotope, it should be given; otherwise, this claim should be removed.

Also, the term "ordinary substance" is vague, and should be made more precise. Is the article only excluding obviously non-terrestrial materials like the degenerate matter of neutron stars, or would it also exclude highly unstable radioactive isotopes?

Neuromath 20:34, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, but you've got that wrong: The mass number A of ¹⁹²Os is 192, and that of ¹⁹³Ir is 193. Nevertheless, I also have strong doubts about Os being the densest "ordinary substance" (whatever that means), but Ir might well be less dense, because along with the added proton you also get an additional electron. And it is the combination of nuclear charge and electron configuration that determines the density (plus some other factors, such as crystal structure etc.).149.217.1.6 14:02, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Only High importance, not Top?

I'm quite surprised to see that this article's importance rating is only "High", not "Top". If "must-have for a print encyclopedia" is the criterion, I would think that any naturally occurring chemical element would rate "Top" without controversy. Would whoever assigned the "High" importance rating please explain their reasoning?

Neuromath 02:52, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Color consistency

Osmium is referred to as being 4 different colors. In the lead, it is called blue gray and blue black. In the infobox, it is called silver blue. It is also referred to as blue white.

Wtf mate? ^^ --Cryptic C62 · Talk 01:42, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Densest element or densest substance?

Apart from the Osmium/Iridium question, are these only the densest pure elements or also the densest substances (including compounds, mixtures and alloys) at normal Earth conditions? -- 85.182.121.209 12:39, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

The neutròn and other exotic "atoms", and individual particula are more dense. -lysdexia 15:38, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Sure, but that's not what I meant. I was talking about substances at normal Earth conditions. If you want me to be more exact, let me add "substances that can exist for more than a tiny fraction of a second" and "substances of which you can have a block that's large enought to be visible to the naked eye." -- 212.63.43.180 17:29, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wrong word order?

From the article:

"As a strong oxidant, it cross-links lipids by fixing biological membranes in place."

Shouldn't this read: "As a strong oxidant, it fixes biological membranes in place by cross-linking lipids."

It seems that oxidant properties of the compound will result in the chemical change (the cross-linking of the lipids) which will then result in the physical change (fixed membranes). As the article reads now, the cross-linking occurs as a result of the immobilization of the membranes, which is misleading. Unless someone knowledgeable about the topic would like to correct me, I will fix this mistake. --Pyrochem 00:59, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Just be BOLD. Femto 12:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Osmium vs. iridium density

You can find a text on the subject from 1989 here. --Anshelm '77 13:40, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

That is quite interesting. So why don't you edit the osmium article to reflect this information and give the paper as citation?? Plantsurfer 16:22, 26 October 2007 (UTC)