Osmium

Occurrence, isolation & synthesis


Occurrence


In nature, osmium is found in the Earth's crust, ~0.001 ppm, in minerals such as osmiridium and in all platinum ores [5]. The isotopes found in nature are 184Os (0.02 %, stable), 186Os (1.6 %, stable), 187Os (1.6 %, stable), 188Os (13.3 %, stable), 189Os (16.1 %, stable), 190Os (26.4 %, stable) and 192Os (41.0 %, stable) [5].

In pure solid form, osmium exist in close-packed hexagonal crystal structure [5]