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Dissolving Gold in Mercury

🕑 Added 2017-07-23 16:45:11 +0000 UTC

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Nile Red

ha yeah, be safe. Also, dispose/deal with mercury waste properly! Dont kill the poor animals in your local water table

Thanks for the tips and thanks for the videos that help guide me in the right direction. I promise I will employ proper safety protocols. A dead chemist is not a very good one lol

I mean, there is less gold atoms than mercury atoms and so the two combined to form an amalgam which you observed floating on the remaining mercury.

Nile Red

Also, the best way is to buy cinnabar powder from ebay (from china) and to chemically make the mercury yourself.

Nile Red

I am not sure what you mean by "disproportionate mix".

Is it possible that what you are describing is a disproportionate mix of mercury and gold? The amalgam has formed a bond and the remaining mercury is just left over? Just curious, what is the best way to obtain mercury? I am interested in its use for gold refining.

Nile Red

There are also sodium/mercury amalgams for certain reactions. Other than that though, I'm not sure.

Nile Red

For most applications, it is okay to just say it is dissolving. You are right though, it is not "truly" dissolving. It is forming an alloy with the mercury. I am not sure what the exact proportion of gold to mercury atoms though. It doesn't really mix equally I dont think, because the gold-mercury amalgam separates from the liquid mercury. It is also more dense, so the liquid mercury floats above it.

As an information addict, I am trying to learn what is happening when the mercury appears to "dissolve" the gold. I know it's not dissolving but are the molecules mixing equally? I hope I don't sound ignorant, I am just fascinated with why things happen. :-)

As far as I know, the Al/Hg amalgam can be used to reduce ´NO2 to NH2 (totally not used in the synthesis of certain things, I imagine...), are there any other useful amalgams you know about?