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铱 (yī) is the simplified form of 銥, a modern phono-semantic compound created to name the element iridium. It combines the metal radical 钅 (from 金), indicating a metallic element, with the phonetic 衣 (yī) to approximate the sound of the foreign name. Unlike characters with classical roots, 铱 was coined by modern chemists and has no history in Chinese literature. Iridium is a hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group. The character's usage is confined to chemistry, metallurgy, and related sciences, where it denotes iridium and its compounds.
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