| Discovery date | approx 1500BC |
| Discovered by | - |
| Origin of the name | Mercury is named after the planet, Mercury. |
| Allotropes |
|
Hg
Mercury
80
200.592
| Group | 12 | Melting point | −38.829°C, −37.892°F, 234.321 K |
| Period | 6 | Boiling point | 356.619°C, 673.914°F, 629.769 K |
| Block | d | Density (g cm−3) | 13.5336 |
| Atomic number | 80 | Relative atomic mass | 200.592 |
| State at 20°C | Liquid | Key isotopes | 202Hg |
| Electron configuration | [Xe] 4f145d106s2 | CAS number | 7439-97-6 |
| ChemSpider ID | 22373 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Image explanation
The image is of a traditional alchemical symbol for mercury. This is also an astrological symbol for the planet Mercury. The dragon or serpent in the background comes from early alchemical drawings and is often associated with the element.
Appearance
A liquid, silvery metal.
Uses
Mercury has fascinated people for millennia, as a heavy liquid metal. However, because of its toxicity, many uses of mercury are being phased out or are under review.
It is now mainly used in the chemical industry as catalysts. It is also used in some electrical switches and rectifiers.
Previously its major use was in the manufacture of sodium hydroxide and chlorine by electrolysis of brine. These plants will all be phased out by 2020. It was also commonly used in batteries, fluorescent lights, felt production, thermometers and barometers. Again, these uses have been phased out.
Mercury easily forms alloys, called amalgams, with other metals such as gold, silver and tin. The ease with which it amalgamates with gold made it useful in recovering gold from its ores. Mercury amalgams were also used in dental fillings.
Mercuric sulfide (vermilion) is a high-grade, bright-red paint pigment, but is very toxic so is now only used with great care.
Biological role
Mercury has no known biological role, but is present in every living thing and widespread in the environment. Every mouthful of food we eat contains a little mercury.
Our daily intake is less than 0.01 milligrams (about 0.3 grams in a lifetime), and this we can cope with easily. However, in much higher doses it is toxic and one form of mercury – methylmercury – is particularly dangerous. It can accumulate in the flesh of fish and be eaten by people, making them ill.
Natural abundance
Mercury rarely occurs uncombined in nature, but can be found as droplets in cinnabar (mercury sulfide) ores. China and Kyrgyzstan are the main producers of mercury. The metal is obtained by heating cinnabar in a current of air and condensing the vapour.
Cinnabar (aka vermilion, mercury sulfide, HgS), was used as a bright red pigment by the Palaeolithic painters of 30,000 years ago to decorate caves in Spain and France. Cinnabar would yield up its mercury simply on heating in a crucible, and the metal fascinated people because it was a liquid that would dissolve gold. The ancients used in on a large scale to extract alluvial gold from the sediment of rivers. The mercury dissolved the gold which could be reclaimed by distilling off the mercury.
The Almadén deposit in Spain provided Europe with its mercury. In the Americas, it was the Spanish conquerors who exploited the large deposits of cinnabar at Huancavelica in order to extract gold. In 1848 the miners of the Californian Gold Rush used mercury from the New Almaden Mines of California.
Although highly toxic, mercury had many uses, as in thermometers, but these are now strictly curtained.
| Atomic radius, non-bonded (Å) | 2.23 | Covalent radius (Å) | 1.32 |
| Electron affinity (kJ mol−1) | Not stable |
Electronegativity (Pauling scale) |
1.9 |
|
Ionisation energies (kJ mol−1) |
1st
1007.066
2nd
1809.756
3rd
3299.8
4th
-
5th
-
6th
-
7th
-
8th
-
|
||
| Common oxidation states | 2, 1 | ||||
| Isotopes | Isotope | Atomic mass | Natural abundance (%) | Half life | Mode of decay |
| 196Hg | 195.966 | 0.15 | > 2.5 x 1018 y | α | |
| 198Hg | 197.967 | 9.97 | - | - | |
| 199Hg | 198.968 | 16.87 | - | - | |
| 200Hg | 199.968 | 23.1 | - | - | |
| 201Hg | 200.970 | 13.18 | - | - | |
| 202Hg | 201.971 | 29.86 | - | - | |
| 204Hg | 203.973 | 6.87 | - | - | |
|
|
|
Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1) |
140 | Young's modulus (GPa) | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Shear modulus (GPa) | Unknown | Bulk modulus (GPa) | 25 | |||||||||||
| Vapour pressure | ||||||||||||||
| Temperature (K) |
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| Pressure (Pa) |
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| Listen to Mercury Podcast |
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Transcript :
Chemistry in its element: mercury(Promo) You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. (End promo) Chris Smith Hello! This week, we're exploring the link between mad hatters, mascara, the emperors of China and fishing floats; a strange combination you might say, but probably not as strange as this! Fred Campbell Could a man walk across a swimming pool filled with mercury? Don't ask me how the conversation had reached this point, but being surrounded by friends, who would, it is fair to say, describe themselves as science illiterate, I knew it was up to me, the token scientist around the table, to give the definitive answer. "No." I confidently said, adding rather smugly, "it is nowhere near dense enough." The next morning I was rudely awakened by my ringing mobile; I was wrong! Elemental mercury, a liquid at room temperature, is 13 times denser than water. Enough it turns out to support a man of average build and yes, if you type man sitting on mercury into Google, you'll quickly find a 1972 photograph, published in National Geographic of a man suited and booted, sat unaided, albeit a little nervously, on top of a tank of rippling mercury. I've been unequivocally proved wrong, but within a fraction of a second, this feeling had been transformed to sheer amazement. Amazement not just at the fact that mercury was so dense it could support a man, but more pressingly that the man in question was very likely giving himself a lethal dose of mercury poisoning in one fatal pose. Surely even in 1972, this kind of activity was seen as an exceptionally bad idea. This of course was not the first time that man has been lowered in by mercury. With its Greek name, hydrargyrum, literally meaning liquid silver it's perhaps unsurprising that for the last three millennia, civilizations have been transfixed, believing mercury held wondrous physical and spiritual properties, but often those who dabbled reached an unpleasant and mercurial end. The Romans were renowned for using it in cosmetics, often disfiguring their faces in the process. The Egyptians were buried with it to illustrate their civilizations' mining prowess and the ancient Chinese drank lethal Mercury cocktails seeking eternal life and well-being. In deed, Chinese first emperor, Qin Shi Huang is said to have believed so strongly in the magical properties of Mercury that he died seeking immortality by coughing out Mercury and powdered jade, pick-me-up. His tomb yet to be fully unearthed is thought to be surrounded by great rivers of the element and guarded by the 8000 soldiers of the terracotta army. Skipping forward to the 18th Century and for the first time, psychological illnesses were attributed to mercury exposure. The madness of many millionaires was blamed on the extensive use of mercuric nitrate in the hat industry and the phrase mad as a hatter was coined. The link almost certainly inspired Lewis Carroll to dream up the Mad Hatter, although much debate hangs over whether he is in fact displaying the symptoms of mercury poisoning. From this point on, the hazards of mercury were well documented; but despite its toxicity, it continued to find many uses in everyday applications throughout the last century. To forego reeling off a huge list of weird and wonderful uses for mercury, I would just briefly mention my personal favourite, fishing floats, used to maintain in an regular wobble on the water surface, the mercury float proves so alluring to fish that even now after its use has been globally banned, there is active research to find a replacement to do an equal job. It can still be found swirling around in dentistry, where it is used in amalgam fillings and it remains an important ingredient of many mascaras. But both these sources of mercury are currently under threat. Even the humble thermometer is gradually being phased out to be replaced by alcohol filled digital or thermistor-based instruments. On one hand, it saddens me to think that mercury will eventually be an elemental artefact sitting hopelessly between gold and thallium in the periodic table, but on the other, it constantly reminds me of the dangers that hide behind the façade of its beautiful silver lustre. As for the man sitting on the vat of mercury, unfortunately I'm still waiting to hear back from National Geographic, for his sake though, we can only hope that he is living a long and healthy life and has not joined the long list of mercury's many victims. Chris Smith Chemistry World's Fred Campbell on the uses and abuses of element number 80, Quick silver, otherwise known as mercury. Here's a taste of what to look forward to next time. Adina Payton The first thing most people think about when this element is mentioned is barium enema or barium swallow, sickly memories often surface off the radiology clinic, where the nice nurse asked you, 'what flavour would you like, strawberry or banana'. Chris Smith A hard act to swallow, you could say, but thankfully a very digestible account of barium. That's coming up with Adina Payton on next week's Chemistry in its element. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye! (Promo) Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.com. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.org/elements. (End Promo)
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Visual Elements images and videos
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
Data
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
Uses and properties
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Supply risk data
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
History text
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Podcasts
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Periodic Table of Videos
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
