OSMIUM - The rarest and DEADLIEST precious metal!

Osmium is a rare silver blue colored metal with atomic number 76. Only 500 kg are mined worldwide primarily in Russia, South Africa and parts of North America. It is only 50 parts per TRILLION not billion nor million, TRILLION! It is also a precious metal but can be deadly if not handled correctly. If smashed into fine dust it can combine with oxygen and form deadly osmium tetroxide! Nasty stuff!

Photo from Wikipedia and Wikimedia:

Osmium video by me

#osmium #KickassScience #DeadlyMetals

[UQRXD]

Gold is the deadliest precious metal. Millions have died for it.

[owensmith]

Osmium was briefly used as the first type of metal filament in light bulbs. It was better than a carbon filament, but the Osmium was so expensive back then (circa 1920s) you got a refund if you returned a blown bulb for recycling. Also thieves would break into houses to steal Osmium light bulbs. The brand name Osram came from this use of Osmium. Then Tungsten was found to work better as a filament and was a lot cheaper (at the time), and this lead to the brand name Tungsram which technically still exists but they went back to using Osram. Originally a Hungarian company.

[garydirkse]

In the fifties, osmium was use for phonograph needles because diamonds cost more at the time.

[charlottehardy]

I learnt about the deadly consequences of this as a teenager when my chemistry teacher dropped his display piece and immediately ordered the class out of the lab to be safe. That was fun 🙄😏

[Kualinar]

Osmium is used to make other metals and alloys harder. It's always used in very small amount. As a rule of thumb, anything over 0.1% will make the alloy to hard and brittle. Rarely used at more than 0.01% for pretty much any use. The highest concentration is used to make turn table needles that are almost as durable as the diamond ones.

[BruceBoschek]

Osmium tetroxide is the standard fixative for biological material in transmission electron microscopy. It binds to lipids and gives superior contrast, especially when the material is post stained with uranium acetate.

[LuciferVonCarstein]

Osmium’s best use is to keep the X-men character Colossus unharmed.

[BrutusMayhem]

Lots of very intelligent people in this thread. Reading through the comments I learned just as much as the video. I appreciate the sharing of knowledge.

[hollisspear]

In high school I had a part-time job where they kept osmium tetroxide in a mini-fridge in one of the lab rooms. There was a post-it note saying "Don't put your lunch in here!" with a skull and crossbones, crudely drawn with a ball point pen. None of us put our lunch in there.

[roniesanderson]

Interesting. I had an oscilloscope (all Valve) that used Osmium alloy shield on the cathode ray tubes to keep out magnetic interference of the beam .

[The_OsmiumChannel]

It should be noted that sintered osmium is at risk of breaking and shattering, not fully dense osmium (the beaded form). Fully dense osmium beads are anything but fragile. You can strike it with a hammer many many times and it will remain entirely intact. I had to jerry-rig myself a tungsten hammer and even then it took 8 whacks to break it.

[christopherleubner]

You can grow crystal clusters like thus by putting osmium sponge, osmium tetroxide, and a tiny amount of iodine in a sealed quartz tube. Heat the osmium tetroxide/sponge side gently to get it to make vapor in the tube, heat the other end very strongly. The crystals will grow on the hot end. 😁

[flamencoprof]

Worth mentioning is the use of its hardness by the Osmiriod pen company to slow the wear in the tips of pen nibs. I remember the brand from my school days in the Sixties.

[addertooth]

Osmium was also used to tip Gold Nibs used in Fountain pens decades ago. It was prized for its abrasion resistance when applied to just the tip of the gold nibs. It was fused to the gold nibs via a high voltage electrical arc.

[ideologybot]

It also has some interesting conductive and electromagnetic properties. MRI's have used magnets made partially with osmium.

[DaveTexas]

This is why I love YouTube — I learn something new every day! I didn’t know any of this about Osmium.

[wintermoonomen]

This showed up on my feed and I'm glad I watched it. Short but very informative. I enjoyed this. Thank you.

[petyrkowalski]

I remember Donny and Maria Osmium in the 1970s

[ronaldshimekph.d.]

Its use in TEM preparation involves using OsO4 solutions to stain tissue blocks. It is generally purchased inside sealed glass ampules as a clear fluid = a small amount of the material dissolved in water. The ampules are broken open and the fluid used immediately and then disposed of (disposal of such a toxic material is really dicey as well). This needs to be done in a fume hood or in some other way to isolate the gas. To show students how nasty the stuff is, and to be able to recognize it what was happening if some was accidentally spilled, a prof I once had, had us students stand across a room from a small amount (a few grams ) of an OsO4 solution in a small beaker placed in a fume hood, with the hood door open and the ventilation off. Within a few minutes, a strong but very odd, metallic taste occurred - mostly on the sides and back of the tongue which started to hurt, about at this time one's eyes also began to ache/hurt. A that point the beaker was covered, the fume hood cover closed and the hood started so as to remove the vapors. Windows were opened and fans started to ventilate the room. Recovery took about 5 minutes. OsO4 sublimates (evaporates into a vapor without going through a liquid form) easily and rapidly. While Osmium metal may be safe to handle, OsO4 is decidedly hazardous, as the material vaporizes out of a water solution easily, it is exceedingly poisonous and dangerous to work with. Its density is what makes it a good TEM stain, but every microscopist I have ever known to use the stuff treats it with the respect it deserves. The damn stuff is truly scary to work around...

[thomasneal]

“Return my treasures to me, and I myself will carry you through the gates of Valhalla. You shall ride eternal. Shiny, and chrome!”