0010110 - 24-7-2007 at 13:15
I have a large quanity of HgO and I was wondering if there is a way to make mercury fulminate from HgO, or would I have to first convert it to metal?
If i do have to first convert it into the metal how could i go about doing it, 100g at a time, safely?
Thanks for any help you can offer. Oh and just to let you all know i searched extensively and could not conclude any thing from my searches.
garage chemist - 24-7-2007 at 13:20
To convert it to the metal, simply heat it, at 400°C it decomposes into its elements.
However, that temperature is above the boiling point of mercury, so you will have to do this in some sort of distillation apparatus to condense the
mercury vapor (bent test-tube or with a retort), and of course under a fume hood.
Theoretically it should not be required to convert it to the metal, since HgO and HNO3 give mercuric nitrate too, as does the metal- but the byproduct
NO/NO2 that is formed during dissolution of the mercury might be required to start the reaction with the ethanol...
you'll have to try it out.
Bert - 24-7-2007 at 19:44
No need to decompose the HgO to metalic Hg. Mercury Fulminate from HgO
A bit of nitrite or even starch will cause sufficient nitrous oxides to start the reaction.
[Edited on by Bert]
Contact-process - 2-8-2007 at 06:50
In the Versuchschemie.de Board there is a nice way to destill Hg look here: http://www.versuchschemie.de/topic,6464,-Destillation+von+Qu...
If you don´t understand it I can translate it into English.
I am from Germany