Editing Osmium (section)

== History ==
Osmium was discovered in 1803 by [[Smithson Tennant]] and [[William Hyde Wollaston]] in [[London]], England.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Osmium|journal=Metallurgist|volume=18|issue= 2|date=1974|doi=10.1007/BF01132596|pages=155–157|first=S. I.|last=Venetskii|s2cid=241230590 }}</ref> The discovery of osmium is intertwined with that of platinum and the other metals of the [[platinum group]]. Platinum reached Europe as ''platina'' ("small silver"), first encountered in the late 17th century in silver mines around the [[Chocó Department]], in [[Colombia]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Platinum of New Granada: Mining and Metallurgy in the Spanish Colonial Empire|author=McDonald, M.|journal=Platinum Metals Review|volume=3|issue=4|date=959|pages=140–145|doi=10.1595/003214059X34140145 |url=http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/dynamic/article/view/pmr-v3-i4-140-145|access-date=October 15, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609195507/http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/dynamic/article/view/pmr-v3-i4-140-145|archive-date=June 9, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The discovery that this metal was not an alloy, but a distinct new element, was published in 1748.<ref>{{cite book|author=Juan, J.|author2=de Ulloa, A.|date=1748|title=Relación histórica del viage a la América Meridional|volume=1|page=606|language=es}}</ref>
Chemists who studied platinum dissolved it in [[aqua regia]] (a mixture of [[hydrochloric acid|hydrochloric]] and [[nitric acid]]s) to create soluble salts. They always observed a small amount of a dark, insoluble residue.<ref name="hunt" /> [[Joseph Louis Proust]] thought that the residue was [[graphite]].<ref name="hunt">{{cite journal|title=A History of Iridium|first=L. B.|last=Hunt|journal=Platinum Metals Review|volume=31|issue=1|date=1987|url=http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v31-i1-032-041.pdf|access-date=2012-03-15|pages=32–41|doi=10.1595/003214087X3113241 |archive-date=March 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304225507/http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v31-i1-032-041.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Victor Collet-Descotils]], [[Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy]], and [[Louis Nicolas Vauquelin]] also observed iridium in the black platinum residue in 1803, but did not obtain enough material for further experiments.<ref name="hunt" /> Later the two French chemists Fourcroy and Vauquelin identified a metal in a platinum residue they called ''ptène''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Haubrichs|first1=Rolf|last2=Zaffalon|first2=Pierre-Leonard|date=2017|title=Osmium vs. 'Ptène': The Naming of the Densest Metal|journal=Johnson Matthey Technology Review|volume=61|issue=3|pages=190|doi=10.1595/205651317x695631|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 1803, [[Smithson Tennant]] analyzed the insoluble residue and concluded that it must contain a new metal. Vauquelin treated the powder alternately with alkali and acids<ref name="Emsley" /> and obtained a volatile new oxide, which he believed was of this new metal—which he named ''ptene'', from the Greek word {{lang|el|πτηνος}} (ptènos) for winged.<ref name="griffith">{{cite journal|doi=10.1595/147106704X4844|title=Bicentenary of Four Platinum Group Metals. Part II: Osmium and iridium – events surrounding their discoveries|author=Griffith, W. P.|journal=Platinum Metals Review|volume=48|issue=4|date=2004|pages=182–189|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A System of Chemistry of Inorganic Bodies|url=https://archive.org/details/asystemchemistr08thomgoog|author=Thomson, T.|author-link=Thomas Thomson (chemist)|publisher=Baldwin & Cradock, London; and William Blackwood, Edinburgh|date=1831|page=[https://archive.org/details/asystemchemistr08thomgoog/page/n726 693]}}</ref> However, Tennant, who had the advantage of a much larger amount of residue, continued his research and identified two previously undiscovered elements in the black residue, iridium and osmium.<ref name="hunt" /><ref name="Emsley" /> He obtained a yellow solution (probably of ''cis''–<nowiki>[</nowiki>Os(OH)<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub><nowiki>]</nowiki><sup>2−</sup>) by reactions with [[sodium hydroxide]] at red heat. After acidification he was able to distill the formed OsO<sub>4</sub>.<ref name="griffith" /> He named it osmium after [[Greek language|Greek]] ''osme'' meaning "a smell", because of the chlorine-like and slightly garlic-like smell of the volatile [[osmium tetroxide]].<ref name="weeks">{{cite book|title=Discovery of the Elements|url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryofeleme0000week|url-access=registration|pages=[https://archive.org/details/discoveryofeleme0000week/page/414 414–418]|author=Weeks, M. E.|date= 1968|edition=7|publisher=Journal of Chemical Education|isbn=978-0-8486-8579-9|oclc=23991202}}</ref> Discovery of the new elements was documented in a letter to the [[Royal Society]] on June 21, 1804.<ref name="hunt" /><ref>{{cite journal|title=On Two Metals, Found in the Black Powder Remaining after the Solution of Platina|first=S.|last=Tennant|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=94|date=1804|pages=411–418|jstor=107152|doi=10.1098/rstl.1804.0018|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1432312|doi-access=free|access-date=August 27, 2019|archive-date=May 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528180903/https://zenodo.org/record/1432312|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Uranium]] and osmium were early successful [[catalyst]]s in the [[Haber process]], the [[nitrogen fixation]] reaction of [[nitrogen]] and [[hydrogen]] to produce [[ammonia]], giving enough yield to make the process economically successful. At the time, a group at [[BASF]] led by [[Carl Bosch]] bought most of the world's supply of osmium to use as a catalyst. Shortly thereafter, in 1908, cheaper catalysts based on iron and iron oxides were introduced by the same group for the first pilot plants, removing the need for the expensive and rare osmium.<ref>{{cite book| last = Smil| first = Vaclav| title = Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G9FljcEASycC| date = 2004| publisher = MIT Press| isbn = 978-0-262-69313-4| pages = 80–86 }}</ref>

Osmium is now obtained primarily from the processing of [[platinum]] and [[nickel]] ores.<ref name="USGS-YB-2006">{{cite web|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/myb1-2006-plati.pdf|publisher=United States Geological Survey USGS|access-date=2008-09-16|title=2006 Minerals Yearbook: Platinum-Group Metals|first=Micheal W.|last=George|archive-date=January 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111062032/https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/myb1-2006-plati.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>