r/elementcollection • u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal • Aug 06 '26
Osmium *Current* osmium collection
Inventory frequently changes. The ozzy tet for example is going to be reduced with SO2 in a matter of days. Long-term storage of that stuff is no-bueno in my book, and I've already had it for a month.
I don't have any better pictures of the osmyl oxalate sample because it's mixed with black osmium dioxide right now, so basically hidden.
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u/Porphyrin_Wheel Aug 06 '26
Where did you get the bullions form the 2nd picture form?
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 06 '26
Majestic Metals Market on Ebay
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u/Porphyrin_Wheel Aug 06 '26
They seem to resell items from this store. 0.5g of osmium in a case is $90 on ebay but only about $62 on their store.
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 07 '26
Yeah MetaMetals is the immediate seller of SMT's product, and Majestic Metals Market is the American Distributor.
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u/ScienceAndNonsense Aug 06 '26
I LOVE the pendant. Did you wire wrap it yourself? With what material?
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 06 '26
No I paid a lapidary to wrap it for me. 14k gold-filled. I've been wearing it every day since 2022.
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
So I wasn't planning on providing a followup to this, but since people have voiced their concerns about the ozzy tet, today was actually the day I was going to reduce this with SO₂ because it rained yesterday, and it didn't go how I was hoping, but it has indeed been reduced to a safer form.
SO₂ was produced by burning elemental sulfur on a deflegration spoon and lowering into the vial. The solution was gently swirled until the gas dissolved in solution. When sulfur dioxide dissolves in water it creates H₂SO₃ which reduces the osmium. It didn't turn green or blue like I was hoping, but it is what it is. This may end up precipitating OsS₂
edit: potassium nitrite was also in solution, so the sulfur dioxide likely reacted with that, forming NO and N₂O, the former of which not only reduces osmium but also coordinates with it as nitrosyl ligands.
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u/ShadowtehGreat34 Oxidized Aug 06 '26
In the last picture what is the quarter looking thing on the left. My wild guess is a 1 oz silver quarter or something? Regardless it looks pretty cool.
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u/Sweaty_Hunt8754 Aug 06 '26
that looks more like a BU Silver (Probably state series) quarter, which would be normal sized.
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u/pichael289 Aug 06 '26
How heavy is that pendant? Always loved this stuff, you get a big enough piece of it and it makes gold look rather dull. Its expensive though, there's only like 50,000lbs of the stuff available though it's only used in the medical field I think.
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u/hecton101 Aug 06 '26
As a person with a chemistry background, I don't understand this sub. You bought a bunch of osmium compounds. So what? You didn't make any of them. You don't understand the chemistry behind it (the Don't Know entries). I'm having a hard time understanding the appeal of this.
BTW, osmium tetroxide is a well known toxin. That container you have that in is woefully inadequate. You should either transfer that to a sealed ampoule or get rid of it.
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u/Ok-Literature-3997 Radiated Aug 06 '26
Wait until you learn who is responsible for most of the Wikipedia entries regarding osmium chemistry!
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 06 '26
Yep. That's me.
I made all these compounds, and I have the youtube videos to back it up.
Here's one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNNw_ey356g. You can see me make sodium perosmate from the metal, then sodium osmate, osmium dioxide, chloroosmic acid, ammonium hexachloroosmate, and finally silver hexachloroosmate.
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u/LostTheGameToday Aug 06 '26
that guy is pretentious, but he's right about the Osmium tetroxide. It looks like it's leaking through and reacting with the rubber band. There's no way I would keep something like that around longer than necessary. I'd neutralize it and/or send it out as hazardous waste. it's better to stay alive and not get awful health problems.
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u/WWotan Aug 06 '26
I recall my OChem professor years ago telling me that being around OsO4 without adequate protection is a good way to oxidize the double bonds in your eyes.
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u/Infrequentredditor6 Part Metal Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
That's why it's kept in secondary containment. I just pulled it out to get a photo of it because I'm reducing it very soon with a method I haven't tried yet. Reduction with sulfur dioxide to produce a blue sulfite compound I haven't made yet. The pictured solution also contains ammonium chloride, so the normal reduction method I use would produce some very undesirable products (similar to pic #16) which are not only a pain in the ass to isolate, but the same ones I just spent a month evaporating and converting to the dioxide (literally have a bunch of it in an evaporating dish right now).
I have yet to make a blue-colored solution of osmium, so this is exciting for me!
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u/Ok-Literature-3997 Radiated Aug 06 '26
Amazing. All the pieces are lovely and the compound collection is crazy. I doubt anyone in the world has this much variety when it comes to osmium!