Potassium hexachloroosmate is an inorganic chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a darkly colored solid with limited solubility in water.
Potassium hexachloroosmate forms dark red octahedral crystals of the space group Fmm, which produce a dark yellow color when dissolved in water. The crystal structure is isomorphic to the corresponding cations of palladium, platinum, and iridium. It is slightly soluble in water, and is insoluble in saline solutions as well as alcohol.
Potassium hexachloroosmate is most stable in acidic solutions, although with nitric acid it reacts to form osmium tetroxide. It slowly hydrolyses in water yielding osmium dioxide, and in strong alkali it also decomposes to the dioxide.
There are several methods for producing potassium hexachloroosmate. The first involves reducing osmium tetroxide to chloroosmic acid with hydrochloric acid and alcohol, followed by addition of potassium chloride.
It can also be obtained by heating finely divided osmium metal with potassium chloride and chlorine.
Addition of potassium chloride to a solution of sodium hexachloroosmate will precipitate this salt, and the last method involves treating potassium osmyl oxynitrite with hydrochloric acid.
Potassium hexachloroosmate reacts with a variety of reagents to produce different compounds. It reacts with hydrazine and pyridine to form and respectively. When it reacts with a mixture of nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, and hydrochloric acid, is formed. With thiourea it reacts to form the complex, which gives red colored solutions . Sodium phosphate and borax both react with it to yield the dioxide.
The reaction of with results in a stepwise substitution.
The reaction time determines which isomers are obtained and in which ratio they're present. Advantageously, the stronger trans effect of the chloride ion can yield the following reaction: