DoChenRollingBearing
Yellow Jacket
...
Recently I sent off a check for $709.00 to preciousmetalpurchase.com for 1 toz of iridium sponge (powder). It arrived just fine by mail today.
Iridium (Ir) is the second heaviest of the elements (non-radioactive ones), coming in at about 22.5 gm/cc (platinum about 21.4, gold about 19.3). Iridium is a "platinum group metal" located between osmium and platinum on the Periodic Table.
My Ir is "60 mesh" sponge (fine powder) that is medium-to-dark in color. It does not seem too heavy, not like the blob of osmium I bought some time ago (elementsales.com), where the blob is notably heavy. I will open it up (breaking the seal, so not be able to send it back w/out an assay) to check the stuff out, especially if I can find some hydrochloric acid (which it should not dissolve in).
WIKIPEDIA has good articles on all of the elements! Including Hassium (Atomic No. 108) which has a density of an impressive density of 40.7 (estimated, as the longest living isotope is maybe ten seconds -- depending on whose number you accept). All of those Pt-Group elements all have interesting properties (ah, for anyone into science anyway).
So while my Ir is not as cool to look at as my blob of Os, it is in the form most used by industry. And if I really want a blob (the color, I read, would be slightly yellow-ish, similar to osmium being slightly blue-ish), I can always get it from elementsales, but for $950 or so.
***
World use of iridium is about 198,000 oz per year. It is used in applications that need a hard (but resistant to chemical attack) metal as well as being able to tolerate high temperatures. Spark plugs. Crucibles for growing certain crystals for semiconductors.
So, howza 'bout it guys? Do we want try to to "corner the market"?
Recently I sent off a check for $709.00 to preciousmetalpurchase.com for 1 toz of iridium sponge (powder). It arrived just fine by mail today.
Iridium (Ir) is the second heaviest of the elements (non-radioactive ones), coming in at about 22.5 gm/cc (platinum about 21.4, gold about 19.3). Iridium is a "platinum group metal" located between osmium and platinum on the Periodic Table.
My Ir is "60 mesh" sponge (fine powder) that is medium-to-dark in color. It does not seem too heavy, not like the blob of osmium I bought some time ago (elementsales.com), where the blob is notably heavy. I will open it up (breaking the seal, so not be able to send it back w/out an assay) to check the stuff out, especially if I can find some hydrochloric acid (which it should not dissolve in).
WIKIPEDIA has good articles on all of the elements! Including Hassium (Atomic No. 108) which has a density of an impressive density of 40.7 (estimated, as the longest living isotope is maybe ten seconds -- depending on whose number you accept). All of those Pt-Group elements all have interesting properties (ah, for anyone into science anyway).
So while my Ir is not as cool to look at as my blob of Os, it is in the form most used by industry. And if I really want a blob (the color, I read, would be slightly yellow-ish, similar to osmium being slightly blue-ish), I can always get it from elementsales, but for $950 or so.
***
World use of iridium is about 198,000 oz per year. It is used in applications that need a hard (but resistant to chemical attack) metal as well as being able to tolerate high temperatures. Spark plugs. Crucibles for growing certain crystals for semiconductors.
So, howza 'bout it guys? Do we want try to to "corner the market"?
