Mercury(II) nitrate synthesis with subsequent Al/Hg producing. Video manual.

[G.Patton]

It's wrong cuz there is concentrated nitric acid. Also, you get NO2 as brown gas.

 

[MadHatter]

Yes, Pennywise's formula is more correct, producing NO2.

 

[MadHatter]

Yes, you are right. I stand corrected, hats off sir.

 

[yin-yang]

Can I calculate the concentration by it's density? Nitrite solution weight devided by volume since water is 1g/ml and know exacly how much salt I have rather than relaying on theroetical yeild?

One mole of Hg produces one mole of salt. One termometar (2gr) makes around 3.24 grams of salt. I don't know how much theoretically is needed to amalgamate 12gr of Al, could not find equation online but it seems extremely small. If any of this is true you can you get like 10 batches out of 1 termometar.

 

[MadHatter]

Why fool around with thermometers? . This just in: 200 + mercury switches from Ebay, total cost around 12 euro. Containing around 80 grams of mercury, from my calculations. It will be a bit of a pain in the ass to get it out of there, but I'm a busy bee . I'll just crush them up in a plastic container and filter out the mercury through a filter paper with a small hole in it.

 

[JohnWebb]

I've been looking at these Mercury switches on Alibaba and they don't look like they are any big. Can there really be around 3 grams of mercury in one?

 

[JohnWebb]

I mean 0.3g

 

[ACAB]

from here;-)

 

[malayboy]

how to make the mercury nitrate as powder? i tried to freeze it but the mercury salt won't precipitate

 

[ACAB]

Allow the liquid to evaporate.

 

[WillD]

At low temperature to avoid harmful fumes.

 

[s3v3n]

Hi, i tried this step, but when i added the nitric acid to the mercury, nothing happened. the concentration of my nitric acid is not very high, so i added a greater amount. i left it for quite a long time now but nothing happened, so i wanted to ask if you guys maybe have an idea, why that could be. thanks a lot

 

[Loooow]

Hello, if your nitric acid is not strong enough to dissolve the Hg, remove the Hg and concentrate it by evaporation.

 

[G.Patton]

Probably there are some Hg(NO3)2, which are dissolved in water. I think you have weak HNO3 aq solution. You have to use concentrated acid for this purpose.
You can't evaporate water from nitric acid aq solution, you have to carry out distillation only. Also, be careful because NO2 can explode during this procedure, avoid open fire.

 

[Loooow]

Thanks for the information, I wasn't aware of that!
Is it possible to extract water from the acid with MgSO 4 my general .... ???

 

[s3v3n]

what concentration yould be the minimum and is there any way to get a higher concentration without distilling? i dont have that much glassware and i really dont want to spill boiling nitric acid so i would like to avoid that method. if that doesnt work, can hydrochloric acid be used to form mercury chloride? what would be the equation for that and what concentration of hcl would be needed? thanks so much

 

[MadHatter]

No, you can't use hydrochloric acid. It won't dissolve metals. To produce mercury chloride you first have to make mercury nitrate, then convert that to mercury oxide through heating. Mercury oxide is reactive enough and can be mixed with HCl to produce mercury chloride.

And son, if you're going to do chemistry, you'll need at least a distillation setup. It's basic stuff. A minimum. Not that expensive, just order it off ebay.

Now, nitric acid has a boiling point of 83 C, water as you know has a boiling point of 100 C. So if you boil, you'll boil off the nitric acid and not the water. Just get a distillation setup. Aim for at least 63-65% concentration. What concentration are you starting with?

 

[G.Patton]

No, distillation only. You can watch this procedure in YouTube.

 

[s3v3n]

Is there a way to get the reaction going with l ow concentration? High temperature should Speed the reaction Up, would that bei enough? Or any Kind of catalyst? Thanks so much

 

[MadHatter]

But did you miss my question? It's vital.
What concentration of nitric acid do you have?

 

[s3v3n]

Im really sorry my nitric acid hast 0.5mol/l i think thats 0.3%, Higher percentages are difficult to get h ere die to explosive regulations, thank you so much for your help, your the best

 

[MadHatter]

That will never work.
You can make nitric acid yourself if you really can't find a vendor. And I know it's really difficult in Europe. Check Youtube, you'll find lots of videos on how to make nitric acid there. But you'll need concentrated sulphuric acid.
Or check the "Listings" page here on BB. I think you'll find nitric acid there.