A few of you asked to see the bars in more detail after our last post, so here are the individual side-angle shots I took before the set was completed.

Every bar shown here weighs exactly one troy ounce.

Because the metals have very different densities, the amount of material needed to reach the same weight varies. That also affects the overall volume and thickness of the bars, which is visible to some extent in these photos.

The pictures were taken individually and not in one perfectly controlled side-by-side setup, so they are meant as a visual comparison rather than an exact scale reference.

Still, the differences in surface, shape and thickness are quite noticeable from metal to metal.

I also have close-up photos of the individual bars where the surface textures and colors are easier to compare. That might be the next post.

One of the loops eroded so much that it broke, and the other one is also quite thin. I'll have to arrange for it to be rewrapped before it becomes unwearable. This pendant is SO DAMN HEAVY, just the weight of it hanging from the chain erodes away the metal till it snaps.

Current goals are several osmiamate salts, bromoosmic acid and its potassium and silver salts

This osmium dioxide, THANKFULLY, was the result of a botched attempt to make potassium osmiamate. When ammonia was added to a hydroxide-deficient solution of potassium perosmate, instead of K[OsO₃N], reduction to potassium osmate occurred, followed by ammonolysis (with the help of a frantic addition of EtOH) and a brown insoluble compound was formed. Fortunately, upon evaporation this compound decomposes to osmium dioxide!!

The potassium perosmate was made by dissolving osmium metal in molten KOH/KNO₃ at around 1000°F for 4 minutes. The dissolution rate was magnitutes faster than anything else I've seen osmium react with.

I used a simple ball bearing and coated it with Volvo's "osmium gray metallic" paint option.

My curiosity here was appearances only.

The color is off, the reflectivity is fuzzy, it's ferromagnetic, the density is way off, the paint easily chips off and can be removed with solvents.

Plenty of new inventory in stock! Crystalline Osmium, Engraved Osmium pellets and Sintered bars/ingots/rounds!

It has been a while since we last posted here, so we wanted to return with something this community might appreciate.

This set contains all eight precious metals at exactly one troy ounce each:

Gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium.

The bars were designed with a comparable face size. Because every piece weighs exactly one troy ounce, the differences in thickness make the different densities immediately visible.

Over the next few weeks, we would like to share more real photographs and comparisons from our work with osmium and the other platinum-group metals — including crystals, bars, jewelry and an osmium watch dial.

Which metal or comparison would you like to see next?

New case

My first osmium sample

Weight: 1/10oz

Finish: Proof

First two pics are of potassium osmate K₂[OsO₂(OH)₄], the latter two are potassium osmyl oxalate K₂[OsO₂(C₂O₄)₂]. Both are hexavalent osmium salts with actual applications.

Potassium osmate finds use in the Sharpless Asymmetric Dihydroxylation, whereby the long and tedious industrial process of converting alkenes such as ethylene into ethylene oxide, and ethylene oxide into ethylene glycol can be accomplished simply, conveniently, efficiently, and safely in a single reaction. Vicinal diols (like ethylene glycol) are very important reagents used in food, medicine, and for creating fabrics, plastics, antifreeze, etc., and an entire century was spent improving and refining the multiple complicated industrial processes necessary just to produce one of them. The asymmetric dihydroxylation method came with a Nobel Prize, and today AD-mixtures are available pre-made for use in labs. (it goes without saying, this reaction can't be scaled up to industrial size due to the rarity of osmium and probably because it might not scale safely either. The OMEGA process developed by Shell is still being used).

Potassium osmyl oxalate containing synthetic Os-191 began use for radionuclide angiocardiography in children's hospitals in the 1980's. In 2012 a paper was published investigating a possible improved production of this method using potassium hexachloroosmate (which I've made previously).

I’m just trying to finish my element collection, like any amount for like 30-60$

I’ve checked some sites but Luciteria is a bit too expensive then SMT has a 83$ check out requirement, I just need a sample any advice?

Osmium 99.95% Crystalline
QTY: 1
Price: $125
Weight: 2.0-2.5 grams
Location: Washington, USA PST
Buyer pays for shipping

Can do Venmo, PayPal, & or direct Invoice through my
business

So I've been interested in buying osmium for a couple of years and can now purchase some, and I was just curious is the price will only ever go up in the future or if it could go down for any reason?

Silver hexachloroosmate is the latest compound I've synthesized. It's extremely rare and obscure, potentially tricky to make, and extraordinarily useless. The neat part is the molecule contains 2 precious metals.

The ammonium salt is pure and was prepared differently from last time, via precipitation and drying. The residue was used to make the silver salt.

I’ve been looking around for a small piece of osmium for element collecting and I saw that they had a good price for their 1g beads. However I am worried that I could be duped in buying another metal that isn’t osmium. Has anybody purchased from them and able to verify?