Osmium tetroxide

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Osmium tetroxide (also osmium(VIII) oxide) is the chemical compound with the formula OsO4. The compound is noteworthy for its many uses, despite its toxicity and the rarity of osmium. It also has a number of unusual properties, one being that the solid is volatile. The compound is colourless, but most samples appear yellow. This is most likely due to the presence of the impurity osmium dioxide (OsO2), which is yellow-brown in colour. In biology, its property of binding to lipids has made it a widely used stain in electron microscopy.

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