G.i.B.
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mercury
I am about to buy a good quantity (2kg) of mercury metal for my collection, but I realy do not have any idea what to do with it. I can buy it at such
a low price (20 euro), that I can't pass up on this deal. Does anyone have any suggestions for experiments ??
Edit, sorry placed it in the wrong forum.
[Edited on 22-5-2007 by G.i.B.]
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mxa
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(hi everybody - my first post here)
huuuiiii - really a nice price !!
.. just looking at it gives me minutes full of astonishment 
well, I always wanted to do somthing like this to obtain na:
http://www.versuchschemie.de/topic,6657,-Natriumamalgam.html
or dissolve it ( and be much more careful with the salts than with the plain metal... )
there was something I did in school - coppertetraiodomercurate (hope english is right..) - was something which changed color in different temperatures
from brown to red - the first and the last time I got HgCl2 in school 
.. will take some searching-time, but I can send you or post the "Arbeitsanweisung" for that, if you want...
greets mxa
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G.i.B.
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Thank you for the link mxa. I need some time to translate it, but it looks good. Further, any info you can send or post (I am sure there are others
interested) me about coppertetraiodomercurate would be welcome.
Greetings from (close by)Amsterdam
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phj
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Many mercurate complexes can be achieved while experimenting with mercury, e.g. tetrajodomercurate, tetrachloromercurate, etc.
I personally would never buy such a huge amount of mercury.
I'm even not sure whether or not I am going to experiment with mercury at all, as it's so extremely hazardous.
Just look on this page: http://81.207.88.128/science/chem/elem/elements/Hg/index.html
A sealed glass tube with the metal might be interesting for an elements collection, though.
A good substitute is bismuth.
Similar complexes as with mercury can be obtained with bismuth, a totally harmless metal.
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mxa
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usually it takes muuuch longer, if I search something - luck was on my side 
synthesis of copper- I - tetraiodomercurate - II Cu2[HgI4]
3g of HgCl2 are dissolved under warming in 15 ml water.
Afterwards 3,65g of KI are added, stirred and the precipitate filtered off with suction and washed with 2*30ml water.
Under warming 3,65g KI are dissolved again in 10 ml of water. The solution is poured through the filter so that the two solutions are combined. The
filter-cake (hope it´s the right word - I mean the stuff in the filter) is washed again with 3ml of water and filtrate collected as before in the
beaker (with the "two" other solutions).
Afterwards a solution of 5,49g CuSO4 * 5H2O in 25 ml water is added to the beaker
(with the KI & HgCl2 solutions).
A stream of SO2 - we used Cu and conc. H2SO4 for that - is bubbled through the solution until no more red precipitate of Cu2[HgI4] forms.
The precipitate is filtered off with suction, washed with water and dried at 100°C.
The Iodomercurate changes color form a more brown-red to a really "firefighter"-red
(here in germany firefighter-cars are red) if it´s warmed - unfortunately I don´t remember the temp..
I hope my english was understandable - was translated "on the fly" from my old german paper... : /
greetz mxa
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G.i.B.
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mxa, sounds good, I am going to add this to my things to do list. Thanks for the info.
Hello phj. I have seen woelens site about mercury en I have e-mailed him about it. He told me to just buy it and keep it for some experiments (or
perhaps resale). Buying mercury at that price, is like finding gold in the street. But you are right, I am not happy about experimenting with it
myself. I am going to take my time and see what I can do with it.
[Edited on 22-5-2007 by G.i.B.]
[Edited on 31-5-2007 by G.i.B.]
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mxa
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hehe - waiting for the time, when kitco has a 24-hour-Hg-chart
adding this to my list is really impossible - my lab is my living-room
so making Hg-salts or handling them is out of my imagination () ...
( but when I remember all my broken thermometers ... and my grandpa, who died peaceful in an age of 92 and did research on amalgams etc all his life
... someone on work told me that she had a "schnappsglas" full of mercury in her younger years on the shelf - for PLAYING with it.......  )
@ phj - complexes of bismuth sound really interresting - never heard about those..
have to find out more about them...
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woelen
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I also did the experiment with the tetraiodo complex of mercury. It works very nice for copper(I) tetraiodo mercurate (II), and also for the silver
(I) salt. Very nice.
http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/exps/exppatt.cgi?e...
Click the third link.
@phj: I do not agree with the remark that bismuth is a very similar metal. Actually not at all. Also the complexes are quite different. E.g. the
tetraiodo complex of bismuth(III) is very different from tetraiodomercurate(II). Both chemically, and also its appearance.
Mercury is a unique metal on its own, with a very interesting chemistry. Sad that it is so toxic. I agree with you that bismuth is close to harmless,
certainly when compared to mercury.
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Organikum
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Mercury as metal is not really toxic.
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Mumbles
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Mercury as vapor is where it gets dicey though.
A school around me had a mercury spill a few years ago. Total fucktard caused it hooking an air hose up to a manometer. Anyway, they made it seem
like everyone had been gassed with VX or something. Telling all the parents they had to decontaminate their houses, and burning clothes, and this and
that. Apparantly a friend of mine had a contaminated $10 bill in his wallet
They said to turn the heat up to 85F or so and vent your house and it would get rid of the mercury inside of it. I think they just had a deal with
the electric company, as it was February.
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YT2095
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I`m really astonished as to how much the element Mercury has changed over the years, I never thought elements could Do this!
the Mercury we used as kids you could play with on your desk in the pencil holder trough, and scoop it up on paper at the end of class and take it to
next lesson, or hold it in your mouth.
in Science we had a large tub of it and were allowed to shove your hand in it to feel the pressure.
40 years of age and I`m still Suckin` Air.....
I don`t think I`de like to come into contact with any of Todays Mercury though! Too Dangerous!
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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bio2
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The mercury scare gets kind of ridiculous sometimes.
At the USA/California electronics company old Joe worked at a few years back someone managed to break a mercury in glass thermometer in the parking
lot.
So when the spill assesment team came in they roped off
about 30 parking places and before it was over several
parking places were in plastic bags to dispose as hazardous waste.
All this for a couple grams of mercury.
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G.i.B.
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The stories seem to vary from not being afraid of it at all, to running like the wind if you spill a little. I am not afraid of working with it, but I
am going to do it outside. Does anyone have any more suggestions for experiments ?
Woelen posted a very nice experiment on a dutch chemistry forum.
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/CCA/CCA0/MOVIES/HGHEART...
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YT2095
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it`s not a Chemistry experiment, but it`s non the less interesting And you have plenty enough mercury to make a few of these: http://www.sparkmuseum.com/MOTORS.HTM
you could also try different amalgams and electrolysis using Mercury as one of the electrodes, NaOH soln to make sodium amalgam might be interesting
to try, as Sodium amalgam is also a very powerful reductor.
I don`t know if Aluminium amalgam works with mercury (I know it does with Gallium) and gives off Hydrogen when you add water, and you also get your
Gallium back after
there`s plenty things you could do with mercury and learn new things about it
[Edited on 24-5-2007 by YT2095]
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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mxa
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Organikum
Mercury as metal is not really toxic.
---------------------------------------------
I have forgotten so much, damn it! |
..maybe forgot so much due to the hg ??
@YT2095
do you mean a Al/Ga - alloy as reducing agent ? .. or a Ga/Hg - alloy ?
hope you mean the first one, because in Al/Hg you obtain the Hg back - and to do this with Ga sounds reallly intresting!
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YT2095
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NaHg as the reductor, but GaAl works well, Its nice to know the same happens with Mercury also, I wasn`t sure since I`ve never tried it, I only have
about 30 grams of mercury.
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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G.i.B.
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How good a reductor is NaHg ? Is it comparable to Na ? Are there any specific uses ?
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Fleaker
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Very comparable to Na It's a safer method of using sodium, easily made, search
for references.
Also look into PbNa, it seems to be a superb drying agent and is easily crushed. I put up some info about it a while back.
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
--The Dark Lord Sauron
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alancj
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| Quote: | Originally posted by G.i.B.
How good a reductor is NaHg ? Is it comparable to Na ? Are there any specific uses ? |
"Charged" mercury is used in gold prospecting... here is an interesting link, go to about half way down the page, they talk about NaHg. Using Mercury
I'd make a chlor-alkali cell.
-Alan
[Edited on 27-5-2007 by alancj]
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G.i.B.
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Tnx for the link. There is a part of the text that sais that mercury will form an amalgam with most metals exept iron and alluminium, what happens if
you try to make these combinations ? And why not make a lithiummercury amalgam, why stop at sodium ? (Lithium better reductor) Are there any problems
with lithium ?
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