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OctanitroC
Harmless
Posts: 21
Registered: 20-4-2012
Location: Near the nadir of a triangular state
Member Is Offline
Mood: Reduced
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Osmium, Cesium, and Xenon! Heavy stuff, explosive stuff, and bright stuff. I've got a soft spot for heavy elements...
And then I discovered this charming young man had stolen my kidney!
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Bezaleel
Hazard to Others
Posts: 444
Registered: 28-2-2009
Member Is Offline
Mood: transitional
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Molybdenum. I love the large variety of structures it can build.
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zig
Harmless
Posts: 42
Registered: 27-1-2014
Location: I whip my hair
Member Is Offline
Mood: Back and forth
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Oh yeah, this guy gets it.
Holy molybdenum Batman!
"The chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their pleasures amid smoke and vapor, soot and flame,
poisons and poverty; yet among all these evils I seem to live so sweetly that I may die if I were to change places with the Persian king."
-Johann Joachim Becher
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Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
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Mood: PhD candidate!
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Americium.
USA! USA!
Nah, just kidding. Though it is somewhat special to me, as I chose to make a model of it in 7th grade when everyone had to make a 3-D Bohr model for a
project. I chose it because it's the biggest one that still has a practical everyday use (smoke detectors).
Really though I haven't picked a favorite. The periodic table is such a wonderful place with so many unique characters that as soon as I feel like I
have a favorite element another one takes its place!
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copperastic
Hazard to Others
Posts: 158
Registered: 15-3-2014
Location: In your basement
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Mood: Good
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zts16 that happens to me too (were you pick one for your favorite then you like another one).
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GoldGuy
Harmless
Posts: 45
Registered: 24-11-2013
Location: Toronto, ON
Member Is Offline
Mood: Not sure if awake or in a dream where Im trying to fully awake.
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Gold. But I also like mercury because it can dissolve Gold
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Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline
Mood: PhD candidate!
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Wow GoldGuy, I never would have guessed! (:
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
Posts: 1981
Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
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Mood: Copious
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All the Halides, but my favorites in-compound are Iron and Copper, so versatile!
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Chemistry_Keegan
Harmless
Posts: 45
Registered: 16-2-2013
Location: Nova Scotia
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Mood: Interested
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One element that consistently stays one of my favourites is osmium. It's the densest element, being almost two times denser than lead, and it's a blue
metal, which is just flat out awesome. It's tetroxide is also a pretty transparent greenish colour, but it's ridiculously toxic. Oh well, osmium is
still amazing 
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Zyklon-A
International Hazard
Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
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Mood: Fluorine radical
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I thought that only osmium tetroxide is toxic, and because osmium forms the tetroxide in air, it is always toxic.
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Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
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Mood: PhD candidate!
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No, the tetroxide only forms in air when the osmium is a finely divided powder. If you have a nice chunk of it it's perfectly harmless. (I would love
to have a nice chunk of osmium… that would be really cool)
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
Posts: 1302
Registered: 13-11-2013
Location: UW-Madison
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Mood: Incommensurately modulated
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Osmium awesomeness:
Heating osmium chunks to 400 degrees C will cause them to start producing the tetroxide. The tetroxide is yellowish because some is reduced back to
osmium dioxide.
Silicon is a pretty cool element - it's so light and shiny. It would probably be good for jewelry, but it's too brittle. I'd also like some indium,
that way I could bend and scratch metal with my bare hands. Or some europium for its fluorescence: red in the trivalent state, blue in the divalent
state. Or some rhodium - because it's rare and I could sell it for a big profit. 
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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smaerd
International Hazard
Posts: 1262
Registered: 23-1-2010
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Mood: hmm...
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Hmmm..
Carbon, bismuth, and silicon. I'm sure this will end up changing eventually but I think carbon will always be my number 1.
Love the way those osmium crystals look. Shame about osmium compounds toxicity I'd love to acquire some of the raw element for a collection.
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DraconicAcid
International Hazard
Posts: 4356
Registered: 1-2-2013
Location: The tiniest college campus ever....
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Mood: Semi-victorious.
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Alright, I will admit that those are beautiful crystals. But I'll take rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, or even rusty iron over osmium any day.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Zyklon-A
International Hazard
Posts: 1547
Registered: 26-11-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fluorine radical
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Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid  |
Alright, I will admit that those are beautiful crystals. But I'll take rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, or even rusty iron over osmium any day.
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Rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium I can understand. But rusty iron?? Why?
[Edited on 23-3-2014 by Zyklonb]
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Etaoin Shrdlu
National Hazard
Posts: 724
Registered: 25-12-2013
Location: Wisconsin
Member Is Offline
Mood: Insufferable
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Bismuth. I think this was always a foregone conclusion.
Although, rusty iron is also nice.
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
Posts: 1302
Registered: 13-11-2013
Location: UW-Madison
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Mood: Incommensurately modulated
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Aw man I completely forgot about bismuth. Hopper crystals are awesome. I read that if you leave the iridescent crystals in nitric acid, the iridescent
layer disappears. A tin impurity will prevent it from forming at all.
Anyone know any brands of fishing weights that contain bismuth?
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
Posts: 1981
Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
Member Is Offline
Mood: Copious
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| Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force | Aw man I completely forgot about bismuth. Hopper crystals are awesome. I read that if you leave the iridescent crystals in nitric acid, the iridescent
layer disappears. A tin impurity will prevent it from forming at all.
Anyone know any brands of fishing weights that contain bismuth? |
Almost all of the "Bio Friendly" ones do.
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rskennymore
Harmless
Posts: 12
Registered: 10-3-2014
Member Is Offline
Mood: Eutectic
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Gotta go with the big W. It stay's cool no matter how hot it gets.
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Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline
Mood: PhD candidate!
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Haha, so very true
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Xenon1898
Harmless
Posts: 49
Registered: 19-1-2013
Location: United States
Member Is Offline
Mood: Researching
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Most all of them...
Sorry, I just can't choose a favorite. I like most all of them for various reasons. Whether it's the super reactivity of F or the inertness of Xe,
the rarity of Pt/Au/Pd, the toughness of the transition metals (in alloys), and the uniqueness of just about every one I can see on the periodic
chart. Can't say I know much about elements with atomic numbers 105 and up, but when I looked at the chart as a kid they weren't there, so they are
all the more mysterious. Nope, can't decide on a favorite, too many lovely elements!
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
-Albert Einstein
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Metacelsus
International Hazard
Posts: 2539
Registered: 26-12-2012
Location: Boston, MA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Double, double, toil and trouble
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Xe is not inert.
| Quote: | | Although generally unreactive, xenon can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the formation of xenon hexafluoroplatinate, the first noble gas
compound to be synthesized. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon
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Xenon1898
Harmless
Posts: 49
Registered: 19-1-2013
Location: United States
Member Is Offline
Mood: Researching
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Everything is relative. Xe is relatively inert, just as I would refer to other noble gases and some elements as "inert". N2 is relatively inert, but
there are many N compounds. I had watched that neat old video posted by plante1999 on Xe reactivity before I posted, so I knew some Xe compounds
could be formed when I referred to it as inert.
But I still can't decide on a favorite. Maybe silver, iodine, strontium, chlorine, and of course xenon would be near the top of my list.
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
-Albert Einstein
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The Volatile Chemist
International Hazard
Posts: 1981
Registered: 22-3-2014
Location: 'Stil' in the lab...
Member Is Offline
Mood: Copious
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| Quote: Originally posted by Xenon1898 | Everything is relative. Xe is relatively inert, just as I would refer to other noble gases and some elements as "inert". N2 is relatively inert, but
there are many N compounds. I had watched that neat old video posted by plante1999 on Xe reactivity before I posted, so I knew some Xe compounds
could be formed when I referred to it as inert.
But I still can't decide on a favorite. Maybe silver, iodine, strontium, chlorine, and of course xenon would be near the top of my list.
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You tell 'em 
Yea, strontium is probably one of my favorites too Strontium nitrate was the first oddball chemical I ever got, which triggered me buying way too much
barium nitrate later on in life (I hate having large quantities of poisons).
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Steam
Hazard to Others
Posts: 238
Registered: 25-3-2014
Location: Minnesota
Member Is Offline
Mood: Triple Point
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Flourine, because it steals every electron it wants.
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