Re: How to dissolve powdered ruthenium metal in aqueous solvent?


Uncle Al wrote:
> Farooq W wrote:
> >
> > Wilco Oelen wrote:
>> > > I'm stuck with it now. Why do so many sites mention this as a
method
> > of
> > > dissolving ruthenium? What am I doing wrong? Does anyone know an
> > > aqueous method for dissolving the metal, without the need to use
> > molten
> > > alkalies and molten oxidizers?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Wilco
> >
> > My old _Applied Inorganic Analysis_ by Hildebrand has it. You can
try
> > this one too and se how successful is this experiment.
> > He writes " Ruthenium and osmium are dissolved by alkali
hypochlorite
> > solutions. Howe and Mercer (Ref.) advocated this method of attack
for
> > metallic powders conatining ruthenium. The solution must contain
free
> > alkali in order to avoid oxidizing the metal to the volatile
> > tetraoxide. Nearly pure ruthenium is rapidly dissolved."
> >
> > Ref: Howe and Mercer, J.Am. Chem. Soc., Year 1925, Vol. 47, page
2926
> >
> > One can not believe that JACS used to used to publish inorganics
too,
> > now it seems like a biochemistry/organic chemistry journal.
>
> RuO2 is tremendously hazardous. It is volatile, it will go after
your
> corneas, and it eats Teflon. Great "chemical ozonolysis" reagent.
Be
> very serious when pontentially near it.

I had heard of OsO4 destroying corneas permenantly, is ruthenium
tetraoxide severely corrosive too? BTW, RuO2 appears to be a solid, is
that toxic?

.

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