Can I weld osmium ? ? ? ?

you have to weld it in a vacuum,a no oxygen environment,when you start to weld,pump sulfur in at the rod burn rate,and that will mix with the osmium fumes(osmium does not contain oxgynal elements,hence no oxidising)and create a hydrogen ionic gas....make sure and vent periodically or you might float away,if you are inside the vacuum when you are welding that is,which is highly unadvisable without the correct gear.. good luck!! hope this helps

oh and btw,if you feel you don't want to go this course, a metal you can use with the same strength as osmium but more stable under the arc would be Thacdyllium, only caveat ,this one has to be welded under water.. your call

osmium tetroxide

I TIG weld small parts in a glove cabinet filled with argon. The argon recirculates through the torch by a pump and filter. I do it to save buying argon.

I don't know if you can weld osmium, sorry, but if you do the above you won't make osmium tetroxide - no oxygen.

btw, Osmium metal forms OsO4 just in the air, it doesn't need to get hot or anything. Osmium metal is not very useful because of this, and it smells unmistakeably unpleasant. Osmium alloys can be useful, but not pure osmium.

OsO4 is nasty stuff, but it stinks and burns the eyes far too much to kill you, unless you have no eyes and have been snorting too much cocaine and can't smell. It burns the lungs too.

If you can smell, even a bit, or have eyeballs, you will leave any room with OsO4 in it _far_ more rapidly than you will get fatally poisoned.

When there was a scare about OsO4 I worked out that in order to kill people you would need to spend about $20,000 per person, and keep them for 12 hours in an atmoshere which would blind them in less than a minute.

It's fairly similar to sulphur dioxide in it's both its toxic exposure levels and toxic effects. As far as we know it is not a cumulative poison (except in that it can burn tissue that has already been burned), or a carcinogen, or a teratogen, or a mutagen, and it does not cause heavy metal poisoning.

But we don't know everything, and my advice would be to keep well away from both osmium and osmium tetroxide unless you hava a real need to use them.

what he said..hehe sorry 'bout the other posts but I couldn't resist..feeling in a mood I guess :-)

I used Os as a fixative for electron microscopy years ago. Another health effect to watch for is that it will cross-link the proteins in you eye lenses, which can have a negative effect on your vision! Early signs of this exposure the appearance of "halos" around lights. Be careful !!!

John

I don't think you can. I think they retired back to Utah.

Steve

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Two. One to hold the giraffe and one to ride the bicycle.

Steve