Osmium tetroxide
 

For those who are interested, the melting point is 40 C and the boiling point is 130 C, which means that it is pretty volatile. How stable it would be in an explosion, I don't know. It is extremely poisonous; my faithful copy of the Rubber Handbook says that concentrations as low as one tenth of a millionth of a gram per cubic metre of air can cause lung congestion, skin damage or eye damage. On the other hand, I don't have a price list to hand, but I would guess that you're entering arm and a leg territory. All in all, a most peculiar choice.

Here endeth the lesson.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

If that hadn't been spelt correctly I'd have thought this was a thread raised by sir_drinks_a_lot.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

If I hadn't spelt it right I'd probably have to retire with the customary revolver and bottle of whisky. :)

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

You sound like my old Science Teacher ... er ... or was that the whole point? ;)

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

I thought it was one of the later Roman emperors myself.

Are we really so short of intelligent terrorists? OK, not a laughing matter, but really. There are several hundred better (worse?) choices to spread around London, but I think the terrorists are hampered by their wish to be spectacular, which will hopefully lead them to overlook the more obvious means of causing disruption (I'm amazed there aren't more bogus bomb scares, the IRA worked that one out years ago, it was far safer to make a phone call than a bomb).

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

$35.00 a gram according to this site, just in case you wanted to pop down and get some :disturbd:

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

so not really that expensive then! from Theodoric's first post, 1g would do a lot of damage!!!

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

and that is the problem , chemicals that are used legit can be used for causing death and destruction :(

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

Yes, but not something you buy at Boots. However, most of the laboratory supply houses would probably stock it.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

And as if airborn was not bad enough, they now advertise it in aqueas form

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

As cheap as that, eh. But at about 28g to the troy ounce it makes it dearer than gold.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

Yes, if you can get it finely and evenly dispersed and keep it in the air. Easier said than done, I suspect.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

LOL, definitely not something for Boots.

Sigma sell it, & I assume there are other UK suppliers too.


Odd choice of chemical.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

True but you know what they say normally comes in small packages :erm:

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

Theo what's your day job?

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

OMG, it's on the news now, first I've seen or heard of this today ( locked away at work )they are playing it down a bit as a ( not so dirty ) dirty bomb :shrug: surely it still is a chemical bomb so therefore "dirty" when \ not if we ( uk ) get hit I wonder how much loss there will be, and what will be done about it.

On a side note now, going back to Russ's echelon thread, I wonder if and how many of us posters are \ have been picked up on and are being checked out now as we speak ???

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

I'm surprised at how easy it is to obtain this stuff, let alone order it.

All it took was a Google.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

The thing is, there are literally thousands of hazardous chemicals that can be bought "over the counter" or can be made up by anyone with a reasonable knowlege of chemistry.

I'm sure it would be possible to make the system "safer" by requiring information to be kept on each sale, but only at the cost of crippling businesses with tons more paperwork.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

Also (unless you're on Planet Neocon, where canvas sided trucks make first class weapons laboratories), the threat of poison bombs falls primarily on the person making it. Amateurs rapidly become dead amateurs in those circumstances, and the nastier the chemical, the more likely the amateur is to snuff it. A virtuous circle in fact.

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

we used to make an explosive at school - very dangerous, as, when dry, it would go off, if a fly landed on it. We actually did get it to work, once, on a teachers board rubber - very small quantity, but it made a decent noise plus purple fumes :)

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

Hmm, I was thinking "ammonium tri-iodide" but the purple fumes suggests a potassium based compound.

Either way the stuff is sodding dangerous as it will go off if someone so much as looks at it the wrong way!!

Re: Osmium tetroxide
 

No, ammonium tri-iodide does generate purple fumes - from the iodine vapour that is released. Been there! Done it!