osmium tetroxide
Noun
Meaning
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osmium tetroxide (uncountable)
(chemistry) An oxide of the metal osmium, OsO4; it is very poisonous, has a pungent smell and can cause blindness; it is a powerful oxidizing agent, and is used to stain biological materials.
Synonyms
Examples
Blackening reveals oxidation due to irradiation by oxygen atoms. citation citation Precautions Finely divided metallic osmium is pyrophoric and reacts with oxygen at room temperature, forming volatile osmium tetroxide.
Ruthenium tetroxide and osmium tetroxide are both volatile, due to their symmetrical tetrahedral molecular geometry and their being charge-neutral; hassium tetroxide should similarly be a very volatile solid.
Like osmium tetroxide, ruthenium tetroxide is a potent fixative and stain for electron microscopy of organic materials, and is mostly used to reveal the structure of polymer samples.
Osmium powder has the characteristic smell of osmium tetroxide.
The oxidation can be stopped at the vicinal diol rather than full cleavage of the alkene by using milder (dilute,lower temperature) KMnO 4 or with osmium tetroxide or other oxidants.
This makes osmium tetroxide the main source of contact with the environment.