What is the heaviest substance on our planet? and got the best answer
Reply from User deleted[guru]
Scientists have created a substance with the highest density ever created in the laboratory.
This was achieved at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York by colliding gold atomic nuclei moving at near-light speed. The research was carried out at the world's largest colliding beam installation, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which opened last year and is intended to recreate the conditions that existed at the beginning of the existence of the Universe. The resulting substance has 20 times larger area, than is usually obtained in colliders. The temperature of compressed matter reaches a trillion degrees. The matter exists for a very short time inside the collider. Matter at this temperature and density existed for several million seconds after the Big Bang at the beginning of our Universe. Details of the experiment became known at the 2001 Quark Matter Conference at Stony Brook University in New York.
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Answer from 2 answers[guru]
Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: What is the heaviest substance on our planet?
Answer from Olya...[guru]
gray
Answer from Ducat[guru]
mercury
Answer from Evgeniy Yurievich[guru]
Money! They weigh down your pocket.
Poddubny. The author of the question did not indicate molecular weight. And the protein density, alas, is not great.
Answer from Vladimir Poddubny[active]
squirrels"
Answer from Zoya Ashurova[guru]
The head of a man, with his thoughts. but thoughts are different, that’s why the head. Good luck!!
Answer from Luisa[guru]
If we talk about natural substances, then the highest specific gravity of minerals of the iridium osmide group is 23 g/cm3. It is unlikely that anything artificial is heavier.
Compare - the density of halite (table salt) is 2.1-2.5, quartz - 2.6, and barite, which has 4.3-4.7, is already called “heavy spar”. Copper - almost 9, silver - 10-11, mercury - 13.6, gold - 15-19, platinum group minerals - 14-20.
Since time immemorial, people have been actively using various metals. After studying their properties, the substances took their rightful place in the table of the famous D. Mendeleev. Scientists are still arguing about the question of which metal should be given the title of the heaviest and densest in the world. There are two elements in the balance on the periodic table – iridium and osmium. Why they are interesting, read on.
For centuries people have been studying useful properties the most common metals on the planet. Science stores the most information about gold, silver and copper. Over time, humanity became acquainted with iron and lighter metals - tin and lead. In the world of the Middle Ages, people actively used arsenic, and diseases were treated with mercury.
Thanks to rapid progress, today the heaviest and densest metals are considered not just one element of the table, but two at once. At number 76 is osmium (Os), and at number 77 is iridium (Ir), the substances have the following density indicators:
- osmium is heavy, due to its density of 22.62 g/cm³;
- iridium is not much lighter - 22.53 g/cm³.
Density refers to physical properties metals, it is the ratio of the mass of a substance to its volume. Theoretical calculations of the density of both elements have some errors, so both metals are today considered to be the heaviest.
For clarity, you can compare the weight of an ordinary cork with the weight of a cork made of the heaviest metal in the world. To balance the scales with a stopper made of osmium or iridium, you will need more than a hundred ordinary stoppers.
History of the discovery of metals
Both elements were discovered at the dawn of the 19th century by the scientist Smithson Tennant. Many researchers of that time were studying the properties of raw platinum, treating it with “regia vodka”. Only Tennant was able to detect two chemical substances in the resulting sediment:
- The scientist named the sedimentary element with a persistent smell of chlorine osmium;
- a substance with changing colors was called iridium (rainbow).
Both elements were represented by a single alloy, which the scientist managed to separate. Further research into platinum nuggets was undertaken by the Russian chemist K. Klaus, who carefully studied the properties of sedimentary elements. The difficulty in determining the heaviest metal in the world lies in the low difference in their density, which is not a constant value.
Vivid characteristics of the densest metals
The substances obtained experimentally are powders that are quite difficult to process; forging metals requires very high temperatures. The most common form of the combination of iridium and osmium is the alloy of osmic iridium, which is mined in platinum deposits and gold strata.
The most common places where iridium is found are meteorites rich in iron. Native osmium cannot be found in the natural world, only in collaboration with iridium and other components of the platinum group. Deposits often contain sulfur and arsenic compounds.
Features of the heaviest and most expensive metal in the world
Among the elements of Mendeleev's periodic table, osmium is considered the most expensive. The silvery metal with a bluish tint belongs to the platinum group of noble chemical compounds. The densest, but very brittle metal does not lose its shine under the influence of high temperatures.
Characteristics
- Element #76 Osmium has an atomic mass of 190.23 amu;
- A substance molten at a temperature of 3033°C will boil at 5012°C.
- The heaviest material has a density of 22.62 g/cm³;
- The structure of the crystal lattice has a hexagonal shape.
Despite the amazingly cold shine of silver tint, osmium is not suitable for the production of jewelry due to its high toxicity. Melting the jewelry would require a temperature similar to the surface of the Sun, since the densest metal in the world is destroyed by mechanical stress.
Turning into powder, osmium interacts with oxygen, reacts to sulfur, phosphorus, selenium; the reaction of the substance to aqua regia is very slow. Osmium does not have magnetism; alloys tend to oxidize and form cluster compounds.
Where is it used?
The heaviest and most incredible dense metal It has high wear resistance, so adding it to alloys significantly increases their strength. The use of osmium is mainly associated with the chemical industry. In addition, it is used for the following needs:
- manufacturing containers intended for storing nuclear fusion waste;
- for the needs of rocket science, weapons production (warheads);
- in the watch industry for the manufacture of movements of branded models;
- for the manufacture of surgical implants, parts of pacemakers.
Interestingly, the densest metal is considered the only element in the world that is not subject to the aggression of the “hellish” mixture of acids (nitric and hydrochloric). Aluminum combined with osmium becomes so ductile that it can be pulled without breaking.
Secrets of the world's rarest and densest metal
The fact that iridium belongs to the platinum group gives it the property of immunity to treatment with acids and their mixtures. In the world, iridium is obtained from anode sludge during copper-nickel production. After treating the sludge with aqua regia, the resulting precipitate is calcined, resulting in the extraction of iridium.
Characteristics
The hardest silver-white metal has the following group of properties:
- periodic table element Iridium No. 77 has an atomic mass of 192.22 amu;
- a substance melted at a temperature of 2466°C will boil at 4428°C;
- density of molten iridium – within 19.39 g/cm³;
- element density at room temperature – 22.7 g/cm³;
- The iridium crystal lattice is associated with a face-centered cube.
Heavy iridium does not change under the influence of normal air temperature. The result of calcination under the influence of heat at certain temperatures is the formation of multivalent compounds. The powder of fresh sediment of iridium black can be partially dissolved with aqua regia, as well as with a chlorine solution.
Application area
Although Iridium is a precious metal, it is rarely used for jewelry. The element, which is difficult to process, is in great demand in the construction of roads and the production of automobile parts. Alloys with the densest metal that is not susceptible to oxidation are used for the following purposes:
- manufacturing crucibles for laboratory experiments;
- production of special mouthpieces for glass blowers;
- covering the tips of pens and ballpoint pens;
- production of durable spark plugs for cars;
Alloys with iridium isotopes are used in welding production, in instrument making, and for growing crystals as part of laser technology. The use of the heaviest metal made it possible to carry out laser vision correction, crushing kidney stones and other medical procedures.
Although Iridium is non-toxic and not dangerous to biological organisms, natural environment You can find its dangerous isotope – hexafluoride. Inhalation of toxic vapors leads to instant suffocation and death.
Places of natural occurrence
Deposits of the densest metal Iridium in the natural world are negligible, much smaller than reserves of platinum. Presumably the heaviest substance has shifted to the core of the planet, so the volume of industrial production of the element is small (about three tons per year). Products made from iridium alloys can last up to 200 years, making jewelry more durable.
Nuggets of the heaviest metal with an unpleasant odor, Osmium, cannot be found in nature. In the composition of the minerals, traces of osmic iridium can be found along with platinum, palladium, and ruthenium. Deposits of osmic iridium have been explored in Siberia (Russia), some states of America (Alaska and California), Australia and South Africa.
If deposits of platinum are discovered, it will be possible to isolate osmium with iridium to strengthen and strengthen the physical or chemical compounds of various products.
Among substances, they always try to single out those that have the most extreme degree of a certain property. People have always been attracted to the hardest materials, the lightest or heaviest, easy and refractory. We invented the concept of an ideal gas and an ideal black body, and then tried to find natural analogues as close as possible to these models. As a result, man managed to find or create amazing substances.
1. 
This substance is capable of absorbing up to 99.9% of light, an almost perfect black body. It was obtained from specially connected layers of carbon nanotubes. The surface of the resulting material is rough and practically does not reflect light. The areas of application for such a substance are vast, from superconducting systems to improving the properties of optical systems. For example, through the use of such material it would be possible to improve the quality of telescopes and greatly increase the efficiency of solar panels.
2. 
Few people haven't heard of napalm. But this is only one of the representatives of the class of strong flammable substances. These include styrofoam, and especially chlorine trifluoride. This powerful oxidizing agent can ignite even glass and reacts violently with almost all inorganic and organic compounds. There are known cases when a spilled ton of chlorine trifluoride as a result of a fire burned 30 centimeters deep into the concrete surface of the site and another meter of gravel and sand cushion. There were attempts to use the substance as a chemical warfare agent or rocket fuel, but they were abandoned due to too great a danger.
3. 
The strongest poison on earth is also one of the most popular cosmetics. We are talking about botulinum toxins, used in cosmetology under the name botox. This substance is a waste product of the bacteria Clostridium botulinum and has the highest molecular weight among proteins. This is what determines its properties as the most powerful toxic substance. 0.00002 mg min/l of dry matter is enough to make the affected area fatal to humans for 12 hours. In addition, this substance is perfectly absorbed from the mucous membranes and causes severe neurological symptoms.
4. 
Nuclear bonfires burn in the depths of stars, reaching unimaginable temperatures. But man managed to get closer to these figures, obtaining a quark-gluon “soup”. This substance has a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is 250 thousand times hotter than the Sun. It was obtained by colliding gold atoms at almost light speed, as a result of which neutrons and protons were melted. True, this substance existed for only a trillionth of one trillionth of a second and occupied one trillionth of a centimeter.
5. 
In this nomination, the record holder is fluoride-antimony acid. It is 21019 times more caustic than sulfuric acid, capable of melting glass and exploding when water is added. In addition, it emits deadly toxic fumes.
6. 
HMX It is the most powerful explosive and is also resistant to high temperatures. This is what makes it indispensable in military affairs - for creating shaped charges, plastics, powerful explosives, and fillers for fuses of nuclear charges. HMX is also used for peaceful purposes, for example, when drilling high-temperature gas and oil wells, and also as a component of solid rocket fuel. HMX also has an analogue, heptanitrocubane, which has even greater explosive power, but is also more expensive, and therefore used more in laboratory conditions.
This substance does not have stable isotopes in nature, but it generates a huge amount of radioactive radiation. Some of the isotopes, " polonium-210", is used to create very light, compact and at the same time very powerful neutron sources. In addition, in alloys with certain metals, polonium is used to create heat sources for nuclear plants; in particular, such devices are used in space. Moreover, due to the short half-life of this isotope, it is a highly toxic substance that can cause severe radiation sickness.
8. 
In 2005, German scientists constructed a substance in the form of a diamond nanorod. It is a collection of diamonds on a nanoscale. Such a substance has the lowest degree of compression and the highest specific density known to mankind. In addition, a coating made of such a material will have enormous wear resistance.
9. 
Another creation of specialists from laboratories. It was obtained on the basis of iron and nitrogen in 2010. For now, the details are kept secret, since the previous substance in 1996 could not be reproduced again. But it is already known that the record holder has 18% stronger magnetic properties than the closest analogue. If this substance becomes available on an industrial scale, then we can expect the emergence of powerful electromagnetic motors.
10. The strongest superfluidity
Density, or more precisely, volumetric mass density of a substance is its mass per unit volume (denoted in kg/m3
).
In space, the densest object observed to date is a neutron star - the collapsing core of a massive star with twice the mass of the Sun.But what about Earth?What is the densest material on Earth?
1. Osmium, Density: 22.59 g/cm3
Osmium is perhaps the densest naturally occurring element on Earth and belongs to the precious platinum group of metals.This shiny substance has twice the density of lead and slightly more than that of iridium. It was first discovered by Smithson Tennant and William Hyde Wollaston back in 1803 when they first isolated this stable element from platinum. It is mainly used in materials where high strength is extremely important.
2. Iridium, Density: 22.56 g/cm3
Iridium is hard, lustrous, and one of the densest transition metals in the platinum group.It is also the most corrosion-resistant metal known to date, even at extreme temperatures of 2000°C.It was discovered in 1803 by Smithson Tennant among insoluble impurities in natural platinum.
3. Platinum, Density: 21.45 g/cm3
Platinum is extremely rare metal on Earth with an average content of 5 micrograms per kilogram.South Africa is the largest platinum producer with 80% of global production, with minor contributions from the US and Russia.It is a dense, ductile and non-reactive metal.
In addition to the symbol of prestige ( jewelry or any similar accessories), platinum is used in various fields such as the automotive industry, where it is used for the production of automobile emission control devices and for petroleum refining.Other minor applications include, for example, medicine and biomedicine, glass production equipment, electrodes, anticancer drugs, oxygen sensors, spark plugs.
4. Rhenium, Density: 21.2 g/cm 3
The element Rhenium is named after the river Rhine in Germany after it was discovered by three German scientists in the early 1900s.Like other platinum group metals, rhenium is also a precious element of the Earth and has the second highest boiling point, the third highest melting point of any known element on Earth.
Because of these extreme properties, rhenium (in the form of superalloys) is widely used in turbine blades and moving nozzles in virtually all jet engines around the world.It is also one of the best catalysts for naphtha (liquid hydrocarbon mixture) reforming, isomerization and hydrogenation.
5. Plutonium, Density: 19.82 g/cm3
Plutonium is currently the densest radioactive element in the world.It was first identified inlaboratory at the University of California in 1940, when researchers exploded uranium-238 in a huge cyclotron.Then the first major use of this deadly element was in the Manhattan Project, where a significant amount of plutonium was used to detonate the "Fat Man", a nuclear weapon used in the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
6. Gold, Density: 19.30 g/cm3
Gold is one of the most valuable, popular and sought after metals on Earth.Not only that, but according to current understanding, gold actually comes from supernova explosions in deep space.According to the periodic table, gold belongs to a group of 11 elements known as transition metals.
7. Tungsten, Density: 19.25 g/cm3
The most common use of tungsten is in incandescent lamps and X-ray tubes, where its high melting point is important for efficient work in extreme heat.In its pure form, its melting point is perhaps the highest of all metals found on Earth.China is the largest tungsten producer in the world, followed by Russia and Canada.
Its extremely high tensile strength and relatively low weight have also made it a suitable material for the production of grenades and projectiles, where it is alloyed with other heavy metals such as iron and nickel.
8. Uranium, Density: 19.1 g/cm3
Like thorium, uranium is also weakly radioactive.Naturally, uranium is found in three different isotopes: uranium-238, uranium-235 and, less commonly, uranium-234.The existence of such an element was first discovered as early as 1789, but its radioactive properties were only discovered in 1896 by Eugene-Melchior Péligot, and its practical use was first applied in 1934.
9. Tantalum, Density: 16.69 g/cm3
Tantalum belongs to the refractory group of metals, which makes up a small proportion in various types alloysIt is hard, rare, and highly resistant to corrosion, making it an ideal material for high-performance capacitors that are ideal for home computers and electronics.
Another important use of tantalum is in surgical instruments and inbody implantsdue to its ability to directly bind to hard tissues inside our body.
10. Mercury, Density: 13.53 g/cm 3
In my opinion, mercury is one of the most interesting elements of the periodic table.It is one of two solid elements that becomes liquid at normal room temperature and pressure, the other being bromine.The freezing point is -38.8 °C and the boiling point is about 356.7 °C.
Humanity began to actively use metals back in 3000-4000 BC. Then people became acquainted with the most common of them: gold, silver, copper. These metals were very easy to find on the surface of the earth. A little later they learned about chemistry and began to isolate such species as tin, lead and iron. In the Middle Ages, very poisonous types of metals gained popularity. There was arsenic in use, which poisoned more than half of the royal court in France. Likewise, which helped cure various diseases of those times, from sore throat to the plague. Already before the twentieth century, more than 60 metals were known, and at the beginning of the 21st century - 90. Progress does not stand still and leads humanity forward. But the question arises, which metal is heavy and weighs more than all the others? And in general, what are they, these heaviest metals in the world?
Many people mistakenly think that gold and lead are the heaviest metals. Why exactly did this happen? Many of us grew up watching old movies and seeing how main character uses a lead plate to protect against vicious bullets. In addition, lead plates are still used today in some types of body armor. And when you hear the word gold, many people think of a picture of heavy ingots of this metal. But thinking that they are the heaviest is a mistake!
To determine the heaviest metal, one must take into account its density, because the higher the density of a substance, the heavier it is.
TOP 10 heaviest metals in the world
- Osmium (22.62 g/cm3),
- Iridium (22.53 g/cm3),
- Platinum (21.44 g/cm3),
- Rhenium (21.01 g/cm3),
- Neptunium (20.48 g/cm3),
- Plutonium (19.85 g/cm3),
- Gold (19.85 g/cm3)
- Tungsten (19.21 g/cm3),
- Uranium (18.92 g/cm3),
- Tantalum (16.64 g/cm3).
And where is the lead? And he is located much lower on this list, in the middle of the second ten.
Osmium and iridium are the heaviest metals in the world
Let's look at the main heavyweights who share 1st and 2nd places. Let's start with iridium and at the same time say words of gratitude to the English scientist Smithson Tennat, who in 1803 obtained this chemical element from platinum, where it was present along with osmium as an impurity. Iridium can be translated from ancient Greek as “rainbow”. Metal has White color with a silver tint and can be called not only the heaviest, but also the most durable. There is very little of it on our planet and only up to 10,000 kg are mined per year. It is known that most iridium deposits can be found at meteorite impact sites. Some scientists come to the conclusion that this metal was previously widespread on our planet, but due to its weight, it constantly squeezed itself closer to the center of the Earth. Iridium is now widely in demand in industry and is used to generate electrical energy. Paleontologists also like to use it, and with the help of iridium they determine the age of many finds. In addition, this metal can be used to coat some surfaces. But this is difficult to do.
Next, let's look at osmium. It is the heaviest in the periodic table of Mendeleev, and, accordingly, the heaviest metal in the world. Osmium is tin-white with a blue tint and was also discovered by Smithson Tennat at the same time as iridium. Osmium is almost impossible to process and is mainly found at meteorite impact sites. It smells unpleasant, the smell is like a mixture of chlorine and garlic. And from ancient Greek it is translated as “smell”. The metal is quite refractory and is used in light bulbs and other devices with refractory metals. For just one gram of this element you have to pay more than $10,000, which makes it clear that the metal is very rare.
Osmium Whatever one may say, the heaviest metals are very rare and therefore they are expensive. And we must remember for the future that neither gold nor lead are the heaviest metals in the world! Iridium and osmium are the winners in weight!
