mercury iodide-yellow

may or may not be the proper place for this. move it if necessary no worries.

so.... i made an ebay purchase of some vintage chem bottles that I wanted to put in a glass display box and hang in my study. found a few for really cheap that had some interesting names. one of which was yellow mercury iodide. well I got the package today and opened it while sitting in my front room... and I see this cloud of fine particles coming off the opened box. suddenly I realized the whole if the interior of the box and packaging materials is covered in yellow powder.

FUCK!!!

normally I find everything packed reall reall well especially when it is things like chemicals. ESPECIALLY when in the name is MERCURY and IODINE.... surely even a non chemist should show respect for these. NOT THIS TIME. I am going to take some pics and document the carnage.


top row from left:
1. yellow powder on tape, musta been leaking the whole time
2. more yellow powder that has been blowing out
3. what I saw when I first opened it. I have yellow carpet and lower light in my front room so it was not immediately noticed.
4. an un ruptured bottle of yellow mercury iodide
bottom row from left
1. the cause of the problem. on the bottom of the box you see a flat package. this is a 1980's rainbow bright childrens book I was getting for my niece.. not any more!
2. now you can actually see the culprit.
3. sooooo well packed with an undersized cork... IDIOT
4. the bottom of the box chalk full yellow crap

any suggestions for this situation???? I have already begun to physically separate the pieces of the order. I had 6 small bottles and a book in there. but the residue and the container + packaging material I was iffy on what to do. I am obviously going to try to get as much of the offensive material into containment safely but it is insoluble in water and doesn't easily wash off gloves. also I had to use my last pair, back to the store. well I'm off to go eat some cilantro, parsley and dill, conveniently located on some taco's maybe the heavy metal capturing qualities are over rated and it just ends up tasting good, bfd. makes a guy feel at least marginally better about having had just breathed some wonderful crap.. THANK YOU EBAY.


edit* what I would like from members would be a suggestion for;
a. leaching the materials and isolation.
b. treating it to a safer compound if available.
c. suggestions on anything fun I could to with my now refunded purchase. seeing as how the genie is out of the bottle time to make some wishes right

[Edited on 12-2-2013 by violet sin]

thanks guys. just one bottle had a loose cork. what I also got was ergotine, iodoform powder, a nice old silver nitrate bottle(empty), violet ammonia(empty) and another mercuric iodide bottle that full and was fine. 3$ each not bad.

ya I bought a bucket and lid from the hardware store, nitrile gloves, a disposable tyvek jumpsuit, and a couple pop top storage containers. add that to the respirator, face shield ect. I already had and I think I am safe to deal with it. the precautions in the 8th merk say the yellow iodide is less damaging than the red iodide. but it releases Hg in the change further increasing the fun. yellow Hg2I2 --light etc--> Hg + HgI2 red. this is accomplished by light, heat, ammonia and soluble alkali iodides + more. the red iodide solubility is higher and increased by caustic mercuric chloride, which I have. I would love to leach the paper and then proper disposal of lower conc. waste. prob just toss all the wrapping material in the new bucket for now and gather all loose material firs of course. cleaning up the other bottles carefully, and displaying them later , prob gonna have to toss the rainbow bright kids book

*edit- the bucket would serve well to gas it to cinnabar if I go that route also. thanks plante1999, you do play with mercury more than most. what would become of the iodine component in that scenario? I like the less reactive cinnabar because I could clean and later recover the Hg if I want.

[Edited on 12-2-2013 by violet sin]

I'm not a fan of anything that generates H2S. It has an LD50 of 5 minutes at 800 ppm, which is about one lungful in an average size room.
If you must reduce it, I'd seal the reaction in the bucket after fixing a hose barb to the bucket. Attach a hose to the barb, and put the other end of the hose under the water in the bowl of a toilet. Make sure the hose end is on the sewer side of the water trap. Your waste gas will be a mix of air, H2S, and Hydrogen Iodide, which will form hydroiodic acid in water. The H2S could be made in situ by placeing the bucket on its side, and pouring ferrous sulfide into the bottom of the bucket. A paper cup of HCl is carefully placed inside the bucket so that it will tip and spill into the FeS when the bucket is turned upright. The lid is placed on the bucket, and the bucket is turned upright.
Step 3 (4? 5? I lost count...) is to come up with a cover story if you have nosy neighbors. Hydroiodic acid has a distinct odor, and has little use outside of illicit methamphetamine production. Law enforcement personel are trained to recognize the odor of HI. I know this because I train LEOs to recognize subtle signs of illegal chemical activity.

Lastly, find a new place to live out your remaining few days. Between your mercury-laced carpet and clothing, the HI odor calling every K9 unit within 1/2 mile, and the near-fatal cloud of H2S billowing out of your bathroom, your prognosis isn't pleasant.

In all seriousness, I'd wipe up as much as you can from hard surfaces using a slow-drying solvent or light oil, such as olive oil or oleic acid. HgI2 is more soluble in oils than water. The oil residue can be removed with IPA. Use paper towels, and dispose of them at your local hazardous waste facility. Just tell them you had a few mercury vapor lamps in a box that got crushed that you had to clean up. On the chance you're in California, you have a Household Hazardous Waste facility near you. While you're there, check out their re-use room. Lots of great finds there.

Oh, and to be fair: the seller did advise that the cork in the HgI2 bottle had a hole in it. Apparently, it didn't occur to him to put a piece of tape over the cork.
Some eBay sellers have no damn sense. I had one guy send me an antique bakelite radio in a box with an old Stanley wood plane, a huge 1930's railroad wrench, and a shoebox of vacuum tubes. No packing, no bubblewrap. Not a single styrofoam peanut. At least the cast iron wrench survived.

Lol, it would have been a pity if the wrench hadn't survived!
You re lucky it is HgI, which is not very soluble in water.
collect the dust and bottles if you want them, wear a mask and do it outside!
then seal the box and packing paper in a plastic bag and throw it out.
If you were as crazy as me you would blow the HgI off the book with compressed air, then sell it to somebody else!

I cleaned up as much as was easily possible. no need to spread the crap everywhere. I was reading up last night and saw that fine copper dust can be used to pick up Hg. which was produced by slight decomp as witnessed by my exacto-knife shedding white alumina. really interesting and FAST. growing before my eyes. didn't continue after a short while though.
the box was cut up into pieces carefully and shoved in a bucket and sealed tightly. the bottles were wiped clean (kinda) and placed in a pop top storage container with the book for short term internment until properly cleaned and leached in a solvent. I noticed that the silver nitrate bottle was marked as empty but I found 2 black paper tubes about 3" x 3/8" with clear crystals packed in them! score! and the violet ammonia was FULL. a huge heavy bottle that had directions on how much powder to add to a given quantity of water making a 25% NH4OH solution! crazy. all charges thru ebay were rescinded. and I still failed to even have the slightest cough after the ordeal. I love my respirator but I did spend more on the clean up materials than was refunded. counting the reagents found I'll call it a push.

I was already planning on ripping out the carpet and refinishing the old hardwood floors motivation gained. and my bench top in the basement was covered in sawdust and rust. gonna clean it up and probably toss on diatomaceous earth and re-sweep a few times. before painting over it.

making HI doesn't sound like any thing I wanna do. I would like to make solid iodine or keep it as a bound salt. well I have a little to play with for now. continue reading on what I want to do with all this while it sleeps safely locked in plastic.