Sodium hexachloroosmate is the
inorganic compound
In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemi ...
with the formula . A red solid, it is the disodium salt of the osmium(VI) complex . The anion is an octahedral complex with Os-Cl distance of 2.325(3) Å, as established by
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angle ...
. The compound can be prepared by reaction of a suspension of
osmium
Osmium (from Greek grc, ὀσμή, osme, smell, label=none) is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic number 76. It is a hard, brittle, bluish-white transition metal in the platinum group that is found as a trace element in alloys, mos ...
metal in molten sodium chloride with
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is ...
:
:{{chem2, Os + 2 NaCl + 2 Cl2 -> Na2OsCl6
Hexachloroosmate is
paramagnetic
Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism whereby some materials are weakly attracted by an externally applied magnetic field, and form internal, induced magnetic fields in the direction of the applied magnetic field. In contrast with this behavior, ...
, with a low-spin d
2 configuration.
References
Osmium compounds
Chloro complexes
Sodium compounds