Introduction to the study of inorganic chemistry / by William Allen Miller.

  • Miller, William Allen, 1817-1870.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introduction to the study of inorganic chemistry / by William Allen Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    slum (2KCI, PtCl^) forms yellow oclahedra, insoluble in alcohol, and nearly so in cold water. The ammonium com- pound PtCl^) is commonly employed to separate platinum from its solution.s. The sodium salt (2NaCl, PtCl^, 6H,0) is soluble, and crystallises in long red needles. All these salts are decomposed at a red heat : metallic platinum is left, and by washing may be obtained free from the alkaline chlorides. Solutions of platinic salts are not reduced by ferrous sul- phate, but they are so by mercurous nitrate, which preci]ritates finely divided metallic platinum. O.xalic acid does not re- duce them, but a solution of a formiate will, if heated with a neutral solution of platinum, cause the metal to be separated in a powder. 5. Palladium is a white metal, nearly as infusible as pla- tinum. It forms a brown solution when dissolved in nitric acid. 6. Rhodium is a very hard white metal, very diflicult of solution, even in the mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids. Its salts are of a beautiful rose colour. 7. Osmium occurs in extremely hard scales alloyed with iridium and ruthenium. When heated in a cuiTent of air, it becomes oxidized, and gives off a remarkable volatile oxide (OSO4), which has a peculiar pungent smell, and is freely soluble in water. Osmium is the least fusilde of the metals. 8. Iridium accompanies osmium in the ore of platinum, and is sometimes found native and nearly i)ure. It is a white, very hard, and brittle metal, which furnishes three oxides. They pass readily one into the other, and furnish salts which differ in tint ; hence the name Iridium, from iris, the rainbow. 9. Ruthmium is a very hard brittle metal, scarcely fusible before the oxyhydrogen lilowpipe. It absorbs oxygen at a red heat, and yields several oxides. These metals last mentioned are found, in small quantities, acconq)anying the ore of platinum ; but they are so rare as not to need further description.