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BlackDragon2712
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Mercury Acetate Synthesis
Hi! Well this is actually my first post so... xd
Anyway, going with the topic now.
I’m going to attempt this reaction in a close future so I need some advices, I’ve worked with some mercury salts before but still wants to hear
someone else opinion.
I’ll begin with mercury metal and nitric acid as the following reaction:
Hg + 4HNO3 -> 2NO2 + 2H2O + Hg(NO3)2
I’ll add some copper (II) chloride that I must synthesize:
Cu + H2O2 + 2HCL -> CuCl2 + 2H2O
It’ll react with the mercury nitrate interchanging ions as the following equation:
Hg(NO3)2 + CuCl2 -> HgCl2 + Cu(NO3)2
Then I’m going to separate both chemicals by solubility as mercury chloride is soluble in ethyl acetate and copper nitrate is not, then in order to
take the mercury chloride out of the solution once it was separated from de copper nitrate I’m going to add some benzene that is miscible in ethyl
acetate and mercury chloride doesn’t dissolve very well in benzene.
Once I get my mercury chloride out of solution I will make it react with a solution of calcium (II) hydroxide prepared from calcium oxide and water:
CaO + H2O -> Ca(OH)2
Reaction with mercury chloride:
Ca(OH)2 + HgCl2 -> Hg(OH)2 + CaCl2
Since calcium chloride is very soluble in water at 0 Celsius and mercury hydroxide is not it will precipitate out. Once I get my mercury hydroxide I
will make it react with glacial acetic acid to finally form my mercury acetate just as you can see in this reaction:
Hg(OH)2 + 2CH3COOH -> Hg(CH3COO)2 + 2H2O
Then I will dry my crystals and store my final product
I know that I’m losing a lot of product in the separation of the chemical, for example in the separation of the calcium chloride some mercury
hydroxide stains in the solution, but well I think is better that nothing, I will be searching how to recuperate that anyway.
If there is a problem with this or an easier or safer way to make this please let me know, any information will be welcome so fell free to comment.
I will post some pictures or probably a video of my reaction if you're interested
Thanks
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kavu
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Well you can ppt "mercury hydroxide" from mercury nitrate solution with say NaOH, skipping most of the steps this way. Using poorly soluble calcium
hydroxide with even more poorly soluble mercury(II)chloride I would bet that this proposed reaction is very hard (or impossible) to carry out:
Ca(OH)2 + HgCl2 → Hg(OH)2 + CaC2l
There is also another problem with this mercury hydroxide business. Mercury(II)hydroxide can't be isolated by treating an aqueous solution of Hg(II)
ions with a base. Instead you will get a hydrated oxide HgO · 3H2O. Luckily this oxide dissolves in warm dilute acetic acid to give
mercury(II)acetate.
Another possibility might be to try and dissolve mercury metal in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid.
[Edited on 23-12-2012 by kavu]
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Poppy
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Hydrogen peroxide is messy and dangerous. Adding a lil too much makes you solution Over react, spilling the precious mercury all around the basement.
Such diffult to measure reaction rates should never be attemp´t with precious metals.
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BlackDragon2712
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Yep that's the reason I discard hydrogen peroxide, but well, thanks for the help anyway I think I'll try to oxidize it first an then add acetic acid
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Poppy
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Y'cud save the nitric acid stuff
Well if this is really Hg that you have, yoou can react sulfur with calcium hydroxide, then pour a little water over Ca(SH)2 and bubble escaping H2S
gas into molten Hg which is covered by a little water. This should react vigorously, the product having a high surface area as a powder. Subsequent
addition of acetic acid would then displace H2S.
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Eddygp
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Basically,
Hg(NO3)2 + 2NaOH = HgO·H2O + 2NaNO3
Then:
HgO + 2CH3CO2H = Hg(CH3CO2) + H2 (oops I think I forgot H2O2...)
there may be bugs in gfind
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kavu
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More likely as follows: HgO + 2 HOAc → Hg(OAc)2 + H2O
[Edited on 23-12-2012 by kavu]
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Poppy
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and if HgS + 2 HOAc → Hg(OAc)2 + H2S goes wrong you can try lemon jiuce.
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Eddygp
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Why...?
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Random
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if you are planning to use it for organometallic chemistry please think twice..
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Poppy
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Not sure, lemon juice corrodes from rust to stones, having both HOAc and citric acid would buff the acid strenght
And you do not have to worry about costs. If you find a good tree you then have plenty of citric acid for "free"!
[Edited on 12-24-2012 by Poppy]
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Eddygp
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Ummmm, lemon juice contains ascorbic acid and citric acid, but not acetic acid in large quantities... Lemon would taste of vinegar then!
there may be bugs in gfind
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Poppy
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Quote: Originally posted by Eddygp  | | Ummmm, lemon juice contains ascorbic acid and citric acid, but not acetic acid in large quantities... Lemon would taste of vinegar then!
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Mercury salad?
Lemon jiuce as a preferance of choice over citric acid, as for it contains ascorbic acid and other enzimes that might help digesting stuff.
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Eddygp
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Wait, what? Ummm, I don't see any relationship between that and mercury acetate synthesis.
To make mercury acetate, acetic acid will be needed. Why would you want a lemon???
there may be bugs in gfind
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Poppy
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Personal experience with similar guys such as lead, shows that a lot of waste is accompanied in dissolving the metal.
Once you get Hg ions in solution, you can do whatever you want with them!!
Watch that multistep is wasteful, in fact it could not be worse than that.
Why all that lemon-phobia dude?
The guy is expecting to obtain such an ultra-pure sample of Hg acetate, though the procedure does not seem to provide any basis for such, IMHO
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BlackDragon2712
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Thanks all for answering the question! the synthesis was made with a razonable purity and a middle good yield 
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Eddygp
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I'm glad to hear that!
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quantumcorespacealchemyst
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puzzled about reaction, also organometallicmercury?
| Quote: Originally posted by Poppy | Y'cud save the nitric acid stuff
Well if this is really Hg that you have, yoou can react sulfur with calcium hydroxide, then pour a little water over Ca(SH)2 and bubble escaping H2S
gas into molten Hg which is covered by a little water. This should react vigorously, the product having a high surface area as a powder. Subsequent
addition of acetic acid would then displace H2S. |
is this a serius reaction? does this actually occur?
also, what about organometallic mercury compounds? i read that methl,dimethyl mercury are real toxic/deadly, but realistically, being scientists and
using judgement, what are the parameters of toxicity regarding other carbon/metal compounds containing mercury such as sandwich compounds? after all,
there are organo, sulphur, mercury disinfectants still used in other countries. and finally what are the compound compositions, reactions to watch out
for/be aware of regarding mercury such as when using organic solvents such as ether, and chloroform (this especially) in presence of acids/bases,
aluminum (this especially, as NaOH, CHClX, Al, seems to give of COX2, i have noticed this with chloro and iodoform, so i am guessing that mercury will
enter into reactions with a haloform end run, ie: hydroxide, haloform whwn in presence of an aluminum catalyst/or reactant, or mercury itself acting
in that role.)
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DrMario
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| Quote: Originally posted by quantumcorespacealchemyst | | Quote: Originally posted by Poppy | Y'cud save the nitric acid stuff
Well if this is really Hg that you have, yoou can react sulfur with calcium hydroxide, then pour a little water over Ca(SH)2 and bubble escaping H2S
gas into molten Hg which is covered by a little water. This should react vigorously, the product having a high surface area as a powder. Subsequent
addition of acetic acid would then displace H2S. |
is this a serius reaction? does this actually occur?
also, what about organometallic mercury compounds? i read that methl,dimethyl mercury are real toxic/deadly, but realistically, being scientists and
using judgement, what are the parameters of toxicity regarding other carbon/metal compounds containing mercury such as sandwich compounds? after all,
there are organo, sulphur, mercury disinfectants still used in other countries. and finally what are the compound compositions, reactions to watch out
for/be aware of regarding mercury such as when using organic solvents such as ether, and chloroform (this especially) in presence of acids/bases,
aluminum (this especially, as NaOH, CHClX, Al, seems to give of COX2, i have noticed this with chloro and iodoform, so i am guessing that mercury will
enter into reactions with a haloform end run, ie: hydroxide, haloform whwn in presence of an aluminum catalyst/or reactant, or mercury itself acting
in that role.) |
I'll just chime in on the safety of mercury acetate: stay away from that motherfscker. It's only a tad less toxic than dimethylmercury. It's usually
really good for murdering people, usually yourself.
I would feel extremely worried about using, or just having people use, mercury acetate in a research lab setting, let alone a home lab.
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gdflp
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Is it, I thought that mercuric acetate was of similar toxicity to other mercury(II) salts? http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924614 I'm not saying it's a good idea to use an mercury salts in a home lab, but I didn't think it
was on the level of dimethylmercury.
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DrMario
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Mercury acetate is WAY more toxic than the inorganic salts. Different leagues of toxicity.
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DrMario
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For one thing, it's nearly as neurotoxic as dimethyl-mercury. Similarly to dimethyl-mercury, it's absorbed through skin. Of course, ingestion and
inhalation are equally hazardous.
As a scarily neurotoxic compound, it'll fuck you up even if it doesn't kill you. It will fuck you up so badly that you wish you were dead.
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S.C. Wack
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I think you're confusing inorganic mercuric acetate with organic phenylmercuric acetate, which was actually widely used up to fairly recently, and so
is never mentioned in the way the hazards and regulatory situation of lead paint are, like the mercury in fluorescent bulbs, savior of the world.
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DrMario
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| Quote: Originally posted by S.C. Wack | | I think you're confusing inorganic mercuric acetate with organic phenylmercuric acetate, which was actually widely used up to fairly recently, and so
is never mentioned in the way the hazards and regulatory situation of lead paint are, like the mercury in fluorescent bulbs, savior of the world.
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I am aware of phenylmercury acetate. I was not confusing it with mercury acetate. I did a fairly deep study into the toxicity of dimethylmercury, and
mercury acetate was cropping up in my document review, in scary fashion.
By the way, mercury acetate is just as organic as phenylmercury acetate.
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dermolotov
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Definitively, of course.
Relatively, i would say that phenylmercury acetate is "more" organic (whatever the hell that means). I would imagine its absorption rate would be much
quicker than HgAcO.
Remember not to play with organic mercury without proper (more than just gloves) equipment fellas!
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