I ahve some Mercuric Chloride laying around in a bag in my chemical refrigerator and after reading the Wikipedia entry I'm starting to wonder if it's
a good idea. I mean is it THAT toxic or it need chronic exposure or direct ingestion to be very toxic?
I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't start a chelation therapy, I did handle the stuff (no bare hand though) some times.
Any info would be nice.Ozone - 20-12-2006 at 19:16
HgCl2 (corrosive sublimate) is virulently toxic--if you ingest it (it is a salt, after all). Proper handling and storage of this compound should be
safe. I'd transfer it into a proper bottle with a good lid (standard stuff seems OK). I use it to preserve sugar solutions (at least, when I am not
interested in proteins, which Hg crosslinks). Fortunately, this compound is much more of an acute toxicant, so if you had ingested enough to do real
harm, you would know it.
I wouldn't worry too much, happy holidays!
Cheers,
O3
[Edited on 21-12-2006 by Ozone]pantone159 - 20-12-2006 at 22:39
I think that HgCl2 actually is a cumulative poison, but I'm not sure.
Pauling says to eat milk and egg white as antidotes, proteins in these ppt the Hg (instead of the proteins you want to keep).
Drinking a glass of milk or two if you are going to mess with Hg salts might be a good idea.Baphomet - 20-12-2006 at 23:03
The whole reason it is so toxic is that the salt is quite soluble in water which allows the nasty mercury ion to get into your body quite readily.
Elemental mercury isn't nearly as nasty as many of its organic compounds or soluble salts as it can't get into your "inner workings" as readily as the
organic and soluble inorganics can.woelen - 22-12-2006 at 03:21
I would store the mercury chloride in a double container. A small container, with a good lid or screw cap, and that entire container put in a larger
outer container.12AX7 - 22-12-2006 at 13:09
Plus some sulfur (in the second bottle), just in case.
Timunionised - 22-12-2006 at 14:57
I don't think sulphur reacts with mercuric chloride.
More importantly, make sure the containers are tough- at least the outer one should be a resilient plastic. Glass is too fragile and metals would
corrode if exposed to HgCl2.Blind Angel - 22-12-2006 at 16:54
well, It's currently in the plastic bag inside a borosilicate erlenmeyer with grounded cork inside a refrigerator, i'll try to find a better container
when I'll be back from that christmas time. I was planing to use it to make an Al/Hg amalgam for reduction but i'm starting to be less sure about that
though. I don't think that I was exposed enough to have me tested for mercury but thx for the info.Elawr - 22-12-2006 at 20:42
I.t is a good thing we didn't know how toxic Hg isw when we were kids. Back then in the 1960's we were always playing with the stuff. If we had any
idea we'd all be mad as hatters or dead long before now!!
bio2 - 22-12-2006 at 20:53
Slow death by kidney failure from HgCl2.
A single dose of 1g is survivable by some
I read in some toxicity data once.12AX7 - 22-12-2006 at 21:49
Quote:
Originally posted by Elawr
If we had any idea we'd all be mad as hatters
How do you know you're not?
You ARE here, remember....
TimJdurg - 23-12-2006 at 13:10
God playing with mercury was fun. I remember in 6th grade, the first time I was ever introduced to chemistry, our teacher brought in about 100 mL of
mercury and let us all play with it. She just told us to wash our hands afterwards and not to eat it. This was back in 1991-1992!!!!! So it's only
quite recently that the whole movement against mercury has occured. If what I did in 6th grade happened now, the teach would be fired, the school
would be shut down by OSHA, the students would be quarantined for weeks, their houses and families would be quarantined and hosed down while all their
belongings would be destroyed, the teacher would be sued by all the parents, and everything would make national news.
I can only imagine the news story if my element collection ever broke free from it's restraints.
[Edited on 23-12-2006 by Jdurg]skippy - 23-12-2006 at 13:22
here's an interesting account of intentional HgCl2 ingestion
And for those who don't know what melena is, it's a nasty condition where you basically shit out your innards until you have nothing left inside of
you to crap.Ozone - 23-12-2006 at 20:36
Just don't *eat* (or shoot, snort or insert rectally) it and you should be fine!
Much ado about nothing.
Just put it into a decent container and use practical lab safety, viz. glasses, gloves and labcoat. MSDS attached, note that the vapor pressure is 1
atm at 1.3mm Hg/236°C!
Happy ChristmaKwanzakah,
O3
[Edited on 24-12-2006 by Ozone]
Attachment: HgCl2 MSDS.pdf (143kB) This file has been downloaded 907 times
neutrino - 24-12-2006 at 06:44
Where does it say 1 atm?
The vapor pressure is listed as 1.3 mmHg at 236°C.Ozone - 24-12-2006 at 07:43
Good point.
*sound of brain farting*
I was thinking of both water (for reference) and the equilibrium condition (which is 1, unitless). For example, water at 100°C has a vapor pressure
of ~760 Torr (mmHg, 760 = 1atm = 1.01E5 Pa); at this temperature the vapor phase is at equilibrium with the solid phase (ideally). At 1.3 mmHg P at
236°C the vapor pressure of HgCl2 is equal to that exerted upon it and reaches a similar state of equilibrium. In either case, at equilibrium P/P* =
1.
In other words, HgCl2 is *not* volatile, and as such, does not present any storage risk potential in this regard (S8 packaging is not required nor is
chelation therapy, etc.).
This is theoretical, but agrees well with experiment and can be calculated using experimentally determined factors in the Clausius-Clapyron equation.
Raoult's law can be used with less experimental data, but gives a rougher fit to experimental data.
I could upload a small spreadsheet for this if anyone is interested (A while back I was fascinated by how well the CC eqn. works and compared it with
Raoult's law--this was for mixtures of water containing various amounts of sucrose).
