Ruthenium elements

Ruthenium and osmium are generally found in the metallic state along with the other platinum metals and the coinage metals. The major source of the platinum metals are the nickel-copper sulfide ores found in South Africa and Sudbury (Canada), and in the river sands of the Urals in Russia. They are rare elements, ruthenium particularly so, their estimated abundances in the earth s crustal rocks being but O.OOOl (Ru) and 0.005 (Os) ppm. However, as in Group 7, there is a marked contrast between the abundances of the two heavier elements and that of the first. 

Table 25.1 Some properties of the elements iron, ruthenium and osmium...

Ruthenium and osmium have no oxides comparable to those of iron and, indeed, the lowest oxidation state in which they form oxides is -t-4. RUO2 is a blue to black solid, obtained by direct action of the elements at 1000°C, and has the rutile (p. 961) structure. The intense colour has been suggested as arising from the presence of small amounts of Ru in another oxidation state, possibly - -3. 0s02 is a yellowish-brown solid, usually prepared by heating the metal at 650°C in NO. It, too, has the rutile structure. 

Ruthenium and osmium form only disulfides. These have the pyrite structure and are diamagnetic semiconductors this implies that they contain M . RuSc2, RuTc2, OsSc2 and OsTc2 are very similar. All 6 dichalcogenides are obtained directly from the elements. 

Ruthenium provides more examples of dinuclear compounds in which the metal is present in a mixture of oxidation states (or in a non-integral oxidation state) than any other element. 

The corrosion behaviour of amorphous alloys has received particular attention since the extraordinarily high corrosion resistance of amorphous iron-chromium-metalloid alloys was reported. The majority of amorphous ferrous alloys contain large amounts of metalloids. The corrosion rate of amorphous iron-metalloid alloys decreases with the addition of most second metallic elements such as titanium, zirconium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, copper, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, iridium and platinum . The addition of chromium is particularly effective. For instance amorphous Fe-8Cr-13P-7C alloy passivates spontaneously even in 2 N HCl at ambient temperature ". (The number denoting the concentration of an alloy element in the amorphous alloy formulae is the atomic percent unless otherwise stated.)... 

Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry, System No. 63, Ruthenium, (a) Main volume, 1938 (reprint 1968) (b) Elements and compounds, Suppl. 1970. 

Both of these elements are silver-white lustrous metals with high melting (ruthenium 2310°C, osmium 3900°C) and boiling (3900 and 5510°C, respectively) points. As usual, the 5d metal is much more dense (ruthenium 12.45, osmium 22.59gem-3) both adopt hep structures osmium is the densest metal known. The metals are unreactive, insoluble in all acids, even aqua regia. Ruthenium tends to form a protective coating of the dioxide and is not attacked by oxygen below 600°C nor by chlorine or fluorine below... 

Ruthenium nowadays finds many uses in the electronics industry, particularly for making resistor tracks. It is used as an ingredient in various catalysts and, importantly, in electrode materials, e.g. Ru02-coated titanium elements in the chloralkali industry. Osmium tetroxide is a very useful organic oxidant and, classically, is used as a tissue stain. Both elements are employed in making certain platinum alloys. 

The first catalytic study of Reaction 1 was published in 1902 by Sabatier and Senderens (1) who reported that nickel was an excellent catalyst. Since that time, the active catalysts were identified as the transition elements with unfilled 3d, 4d, and 5d orbitals iron, cobalt, nickel, ruthenium, rhenium, palladium, osmium, indium, and platinum, as well as some elements that can assume these configurations (e.g., silver). These are discussed later. For practical operation of this process,... 

The most successful class of active ingredient for both oxidation and reduction is that of the noble metals silver, gold, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. Platinum and palladium readily oxidize carbon monoxide, all the hydrocarbons except methane, and the partially oxygenated organic compounds such as aldehydes and alcohols. Under reducing conditions, platinum can convert NO to N2 and to NH3. Platinum and palladium are used in small quantities as promoters for less active base metal oxide catalysts. Platinum is also a candidate for simultaneous oxidation and reduction when the oxidant/re-ductant ratio is within 1% of stoichiometry. The other four elements of the platinum family are in short supply. Ruthenium produces the least NH3 concentration in NO reduction in comparison with other catalysts, but it forms volatile toxic oxides. 

Pauling, L. Evidence from Bond Lengths and Bond Angles for Enneacovalence of Cobalt, Rhodium, Iridium, Iron, Ruthenium, and Osmium in Compounds with Elements of Medium Electronegativity Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 1984, 81, 1918-1921. 

Diazoalkanes are u.seful is precursors to ruthenium and osmium alkylidene porphyrin complexes, and have also been investigated in iron porphyrin chemistry. In an attempt to prepare iron porphyrin carbene complexes containing an oxygen atom on the /(-carbon atom of the carbene, the reaction of the diazoketone PhC(0)C(Ni)CH3 with Fe(TpCIPP) was undertaken. A low spin, diamagnetic carbene complex formulated as Fe(TpCIPP)(=C(CH3)C(0)Ph) was identified by U V-visible and fI NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Addition of CF3CO2H to this rapidly produced the protonated N-alkyl porphyrin, and Bit oxidation in the presence of sodium dithionitc gave the iron(II) N-alkyl porphyrin, both reactions evidence for Fe-to-N migration processes. ... 

Mossbauer spectroscopy is a specialist characterization tool in catalysis. Nevertheless, it has yielded essential information on a number of important catalysts, such as the iron catalyst for ammonia and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, as well as the CoMoS hydrotreating catalyst. Mossbauer spectroscopy provides the oxidation state, the internal magnetic field, and the lattice symmetry of a limited number of elements such as iron, cobalt, tin, iridium, ruthenium, antimony, platinum and gold, and can be applied in situ. 

In the previous sections we have dealt mainly with the catalytic activity of pure substances such as metallic iron, ruthenium, copper, platinum, etc. Real catalyst, however, are often much more complex materials that have been optimized by adding remote amounts of other elements that may have a profound impact on the overall reactivity or selectivity of the catalyst. Here we shall deal with a few prominent examples of such effects. 

Since ruthenium and rhodium are neighboring elements in the periodic table, a closer comparison of the properties of ruthenium-copper and rhodium-copper clusters is of interest (17). When we compare EXAFS results on rhodium-copper and ruthenium-copper catalysts in which the Cu/Rh and Cu/Ru atomic ratios are both equal to one, we find some differences which can be related to the differences in miscibility of copper with ruthenium and rhodium. The extent of concentration of copper at the surface appears to be lower for the rhodium-copper clusters than for the ruthenium-copper clusters, as evidenced by the fact that rhodium exhibits a greater tendency than ruthenium to be coordinated to copper atoms in such clusters. The rhodium-copper clusters presumably contain some of the copper atoms in the interior of the clusters. 

The most widely used method for adding the elements of hydrogen to carbon-carbon double bonds is catalytic hydrogenation. Except for very sterically hindered alkenes, this reaction usually proceeds rapidly and cleanly. The most common catalysts are various forms of transition metals, particularly platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and nickel. Both the metals as finely dispersed solids or adsorbed on inert supports such as carbon or alumina (heterogeneous catalysts) and certain soluble complexes of these metals (homogeneous catalysts) exhibit catalytic activity. Depending upon conditions and catalyst, other functional groups are also subject to reduction under these conditions. 

Ruthenium like iridium is known for its ability of adopting various valence states which make these elements rather attractive in catalysis. Kim and Winograd [52] were the first who studied the chemical in XPS of different Ru compounds. The results of their extensive work still serve as reference for today s investigators. Kim and Winograd have identified binding energies of Ru-oxygen species (Table 1). 

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