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Anglo Platinum currently stores some of its recovered osmium as the relatively stable potassium osmate salt and ruthenium in the form of ammonium hexachlororuthenate or an acidic ruthenium solution at its refinery plant. To date the development of the chemistry of these starting materials to provide useful inorganic and organometallic precursors has not been extensively reported. This is partly due to the relative cost of osmium starting materials and the inertness of most osmium complexes and also the toxicity of osmium tetroxide. Most known ruthenium compounds are usually made from ruthenium trichloride trihydrate.In the present project locally available refinery materials have been converted into a range of known osmium and ruthenium compounds including clusters together with the well known Grubbs' catalyst starting material as well as other useful complexes. The development of the synthesis of convenient osmium and ruthenium precursors as well as potential catalysts has been proven to be possible based on standard (literature) synthetic methods using the Anglo Platinum refinery material. Some procedures are new and some are modified literature procedures.
About the author
Dr Harry Chiririwa completed his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town. He joined the Research Centre for Synthesis and Catalysis at the University of Johannesburg under Prof R Meijboom. Research entails synthesis of ruthenium complexes, structural elucidation and an investigation into their possible reaction mechanisms.
