Mercury

[transform]

Swim obtained a good amount of mercury from an old denist office he helped to clear out. Since it was no longer used for fillings it sat around on a shelf and did nothing. The containers are still sealed and have yet to be opened. My question is, is this mercury still good? Swim thinking yes but he just wanted to make sure incase for some reason it went bad.
My mommy always told me not to talk to strangers..

[PrimoPyro]

It should be perfect for any clandestine uses. This is where SWIPP got his 4lbs of Hg.

Triple Distilled Mercury Metal, is what it says on the One lb sealed bottle.

I keep them sealed tightly, and the bottles sealed inside platic lunch baggies, in a drawer. After some time, white powder starts to form on the inside of the ziploc baggie, evidence to me that the seal is not perfect. So keep it sealed tightly, and inside a baggie for transport.

                                                      PrimoPyro
Vivent Longtemps la Ruche!

[transform]

Its sealed tightly and still in the original box it was shipped/stored in.
My mommy always told me not to talk to strangers..

[RADENTACTO]

I'm curious what your doing with mercury? It would seem that there are better alternatives. But I know its not as dangerous as they say. Shit I've played with it in my bare hands. and i fed it to a dirty old man who needed some poision and the mother fucker is still alive!

Yada Yada Say whatever you want. 'S OK ta play one!

[noj]

Hg is used in reductive aminations.
Real men cook naked.

[transform]

And why bother with alternatives when swim already has an abundent supply? I mean free chems/substances can never be bad so Swim might as well do something "usefull" with it.
My mommy always told me not to talk to strangers..

[halfapint]

Useful things to do with mercury:

1. Use a mercury pool as a cathode, to form amalgams with ions of any metal which dissolves in mercury. These amalgams are good for reductions, in acid medium.

2. As above, using salt water as the electrolyte to form sodium amalgam. The mercury is distilled away to leave metallic sodium. (Potassium, calcium, barium, cesium, lithium...)

3. Show off your glassblowing skills. Make a mercury manometer. The vertical tube needs over 76 cm, 760 mm, which can bee graduated when you have performed the calibration. Then you can always read the exact strength of your vacuum in real time, directly read as its definition.

4. Speaking of vacuum, give yourself a real (lifetime) project.  Make a high vacuum system. Use a mercury diffusion pump as the basis of your design. It works only when you have made a preliminary evacuation with your regular vacuum pump, which you now call your "roughing" pump. If you build it in the old style, with glass, you will have a treasure of beauty and true value.

These last couple things don't mess up your mercury; they don't lose it, nor convert it to toxic soluble salts.
turning science fact into <<science fiction>>

[PrimoPyro]

Will alkaline earth metals form amalgams, too? Like magnesium amalgam? God I'd love to see the day when epsom salt is used to form an amalgam, that can be distilled in helium atmosphere to procure magnesium metal.      

Is there a way to calculate the percentage of solute metal in the mercury it will take to turn the amalgam solid? I'd rather know this without performing experiments, and don't really know where to look. Shit man, mercury boils at 356.5°C. That's gonna call for a good vacuum.

                                                      PrimoPyro
Vivent Longtemps la Ruche!

[PolytheneSam]

Ammonium amalgam exists.  You can make magnesium metal from Epsom salts a lot easier by electrolyzing a solution of Epson salts.
http://www.geocities.com/dritte123/PSPF.html

[PrimoPyro]

That was the intention, Sam.  

I just wanted to know how much it can assimilate before solidifying.

                                                   PrimoPyro
Vivent Longtemps la Ruche!

[halfapint]

I think that's kind of empirical, varies with each metal. Sodium solidifies mercury most quickly, but the precious metals are practically miscible in mercury by comparison. Na amalgam gets lumpy at a couple percent, and by less than 15% it's a hardened metal. Somebody here knows the real numbers, and I'm tired, but it just takes a little sodium. You have to keep mashing on the mercury pool cathode so it can take up more, and it hardens quickly. Lift it out when you can't mash it any more, and put new mercury in while you distill the hardened stuff.
turning science fact into <<science fiction>>