Estimating the compressibility of osmium from recent measurements of Ir-Os alloys under high pressure

TL;DR

This study estimates osmium's compressibility using recent high-pressure measurements of Ir-Os alloys, revealing osmium is dense but not the most incompressible element, with implications for Earth's core properties.

Contribution

It provides an alternative thermodynamic model to estimate osmium's bulk modulus, confirming osmium's density and compressibility characteristics.

Findings

Osmium's bulk modulus is slightly smaller than diamond's.

Osmium is the densest element but not the most incompressible.

Results have implications for understanding Earth's core properties.

Abstract

Several fcc- and hcp-structured Ir-Os alloys have been recently studied up to 30 GPa at room temperature by means of synchrotron-based X-ray powder diffraction in diamond anvil cells. Using their bulk moduli -which increase with increasing osmium content showing a deviation from linearity- and after employing a thermodynamical model it was concluded that the bulk modulus for osmium is slightly smaller than that for diamond. Here, a similar conclusion is obtained upon employing an alternative model, thus strengthening the conclusion that osmium is the densest but not the most incompressible element. This is particularly interesting for Earth Sciences since it may be of key importance towards clarifying the anomalous elastic properties of the Earth's core.