2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16
The heaviest are the platinum group metals, as they have the highest density. Among them, the heaviest are osmium and iridium. This is the hardest material. The density index of these metals is almost the same, except for a slight calculation error.
The discovery of iridium occurred in 1803. It was discovered by the English chemist Smithson Tennat while studying natural platinum brought from South America. Translated from the ancient Greek, the name "iridium" means "rainbow".
It is very difficult to get the hardest metal (iridium), it is almost non-existent in nature. Often a significant amount of it is found in meteorites that have fallen to the ground. According to most scientists, the content of iridium on our planet should have been much higher. But due to the special property of this metal - siderophilicity (similarity with iron), it sank into the very depths of the earth's interior during the formation of the Earth's core.
Iridium is the hardest metal, which is very difficult to process both thermally and chemically. It does not react with acids, combinations of acids at temperatures below one hundred degrees. This metal is subject to oxidation processes when lowered into a solution consisting of a mixturehydrochloric and nitric acid (aqua regia).
The heavy metal isotope iridium-192m2 is of scientific interest as a source of electrical energy, since the half-life of this metal is very long - 241 years. Iridium has found wide application in industry and paleontology - it is used for the production of nibs for pens, determining the age of the layers of the earth.
The discovery of osmium happened by chance in 1804. This hardest metal was found in the chemical composition of the sediment of platinum dissolved in aqua regia. The name "osmium" comes from the ancient Greek word for "smell". This metal is almost non-existent in nature. Most often it is found in the composition of polymetallic ore. Like iridium, osmium is almost not subject to mechanical stress. One liter of osmium is much heavier than ten liters of water. But this property of this metal has not yet found application anywhere.
The hardest metal, osmium, comes from Russian and American mines. However, South Africa is recognized as the richest of its deposits. Osmium is often found in iron meteorites.
Of particular interest is osmium-187, exported only by Kazakhstan. It is used to determine the age of meteorites. One gram of this isotope costs $10,000.
In industry, the hard alloy of osmium with tungsten (osram) is mainly used for the production of incandescent lamps. Osmium is also a catalyst in the production of ammonia (ammonia). Quite rarely, cutting parts for instruments in surgery are made from this metal.
Both heavy metals - osmium and iridium - are almost always found in the same alloy. This is a certain pattern. And to separate them, you need to make a lot of effort, because they are not as soft as, for example, silver.
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