chornedsnorkack - 10-5-2020 at 04:16
Does water wet mercury?
That is, what does a small amount of water on mercury surface do? Collect in drops, or spread over the surface as a thin layer?
This turned out to be very hard to search for.
Which inert liquids wet mercury?
mackolol - 10-5-2020 at 05:36
Water can't wet mercury. It's similar as with all metals.
I don't really know what do you mean by saying wetting mercury. Mercury can dissolve metals for example sodium or gold forming amalgamate.
Here is video about mercury by NileRed. He was trying to store the mercury under water to prevent mercury exaporation, but it turned out not to work.
Also water forms droplets on the surface of mercury. Watch some videos about mercury by NileRed, they're very entertaining
[Edited on 10-5-2020 by mackolol]
elementcollector1 - 13-5-2020 at 08:58
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-tension_values
If I'm reading this right, water on mercury should bead even more strongly than water in air (i.e. it should wet the mercury less).