Mercuric Salts

[Guest sirius_cm]

So I've obtained some Mercuric salts, HgO, Hg(NO3)2, and HgSO4.

 

Here is my delimm I want the mercury, pure stuff, all I need is a reaction to happen, and im thinking activity series.

 

In all of my searching on google, all I find is that This shit is dangerous, and I know this, also, It says that the salts decompose in reaction with light. I'm not gonna heat this stuff, because even though I know it will decompose, i cant control the vapor. Any suggestions?

[Bsun]

I'd try reducing the Hg... and make sure you have some proper protection... mercury can really mess you up.

[greg1917]

You cant heat the stuff? Are you doing this in your bathroom or something? Whenever ive used mercuric salts before in decomposition experiments its been inside a fume cupboard.

 

Mercury is very low in the reactivity series, silver gold and platinum are below it so any other metal should be able to reduce it. I would think youd have to carry out further purification steps (depending on just how pure you want it of course).

[YT2095]

I`de 1`stly convert the HgO to either a nitrate or sulphate, then dissolve it all in water, then add a little magnesium ribbon to displace the mercury, it will fall to the bottom of your reaction vessel. washing it in plenty water afterwards will get rid of most impurities anyway, and store it underwater too, saves any nasty vapors that`ll make you turn blue and stuff