This picture shows 30 grams of the black vitreous allotrope of selenium at very high purity (99.999%). Selenium is used in photography as the basis for a certain class of toner solutions. Unfortunately, the element in finely divided form or in its compounds in solution is quite dangerous due to its high toxicity and the cumulative effects. The shot form, as shown here is fairly safe.

The element selenium also exists as a red allotrope, which can be prepared easily from the black allotrope (see here, and scale up the experiment with larger amounts). This picture shows approximately 10 grams of the red allotrope as a voluminous somewhat clumpy powder. The red allotrope is not really stable and it slowly turns darker, the selenium being transformed to the black vitreous allotrope. The actual speed at which the selenium is converted strongly depends on the impurities in the sample. A sample, containing a little sulfite or sulphur dioxide, left over from the final step of the experiment mentioned above, seems to be more stable than a thoroughly cleaned sample.

Selenium can be melted and cast in nice shapes. Below, a hemisphere of selenium is shown. This is a sample of approximately 12 grams of 99.99% selenium, the same allotrope as the grey one, shown above.