OSMIUM

(Os), chemical element, one of the platinum metals of Group VIII of the periodic table and the densest naturally occurring element. A gray-white metal, osmium is very hard, brittle, and difficult to work, even at high temperatures. Of the platinum metals it has the highest melting point, so fusing and casting are difficult. Osmium wires were used for filaments of early incandescent lamps before the introduction of tungsten. It has been used chiefly as a hardener in alloys of the platinum metals, though ruthenium has generally replaced it. A hard alloy of osmium and iridium has been used for tips of fountain pens and phonograph needles, and osmium tetroxide is used in certain organic syntheses. Pure osmium metal does not occur in nature. Though rare, osmium is found in native alloys with other platinum metals: in siserskite (up to 80 percent), in iridosmine (q.v.), in aurosmiridium (25 percent), and in slight amounts in native platinum. The English chemist Smithson Tennant discovered the element together with iridium in the residues of platinum ores not soluble in aqua regia. He announced its isolation (1804) and named it for the unpleasant odour of some of its compounds. Of the platinum metals, osmium is the most rapidly attacked by air. The powdered metal, even at room temperature, exudes the characteristic odour of the poisonous, volatile tetroxide, OsO4. Because solutions of OsO4 are reduced to the black dioxide, OsO2, by some biological materials, it is sometimes used to stain tissues for microscopic examinations. Osmium exhibits oxidation states from 0 to +8 in its compounds, with the exception of +1; well-characterized and stable compounds contain the element in +2, +3, +4, +6, and +8 states. Ruthenium is the only other element known to have a valence of 8. All compounds of osmium are easily reduced or decomposed by heating to form the free element as a powder or sponge. Natural osmium consists of a mixture of seven stable isotopes: osmium-184 (0.02 percent), osmium-186 (1.58 percent), osmium-187 (1.6 percent), osmium-188 (13.3 percent), osmium-189 (16.1 percent), osmium-190 (26.4 percent), osmium-192 (41.0 percent). atomic number 76 atomic weight 190.2 melting point 3,000 C (5,432 F) boiling point about 5,000 C (9,032 F) specific gravity 22.48 (20 C) valence 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 electronic config. 2-8-18-32-14-2 or (Xe)4f 145d66s2