Main application areas
Industrial Uses
Mining for gold and silver: The metal is extracted by forming amalgam and then heating to evaporate the mercury.
Thermometers and barometers: They are widely used in medicine and scientific research because of their stable expansion coefficient.
Fluorescent lamps and high-pressure mercury lamps: Electric shock of mercury vapor emits ultraviolet light, causing phosphors to glow.
Switches and relays: Early electronic devices used the good conductivity of mercury liquid.
Vacuum pumps, diffusion pumps: Mercury was once used as a sealing or propulsion medium.
Medical field
Dental fillings: Silver amalgam was once used for tooth repair.
Medicines: Mercuric nitrate, mercuric chloride, etc. were once used to treat syphilis and skin diseases.
Vaccine preservatives: Thiomersal was once used as a vaccine preservative.
Research and laboratories
Standard electrodes: Mercury amalgam electrodes are used for electrochemical measurements.
Densitometers and hydrometers: Mercury is used as a reference liquid.
High vacuum devices: such as mercury column vacuum pumps.
Element properties
Name: Mercury
Chemical symbol: Hg (from the Latin "Hydrargyrum" meaning "silver water")
Atomic number: 80
Atomic weight: 200.59
Group: Metallic elements, Group 12, Period 6
Natural state: Mainly exists in the form of the mineral cinnabar (HgS)
Physical properties
State at room temperature: liquid metal, the only metal that is liquid at room temperature
Color: silvery white with strong metallic luster
Density: 13.534 g/cm³ (much higher than most metals)
Melting point: -38.83°C
Boiling point: 356.73°C
Vapor pressure: can evaporate slowly at room temperature
Electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity: good, but not as good as copper and silver
Chemical properties
Reaction with acid: soluble in nitric acid and aqua regia, generating soluble mercury salts
Reaction with oxygen: generating mercury oxide (HgO) at high temperature, which decomposes into metallic mercury and oxygen when heated
Forming amalgams with other metals: such as gold amalgam and silver amalgam, used for metallurgical purification
Production process
1. Ore mining and primary selection
Open-pit or underground mining is carried out in cinnabar-rich mines.
Coarse screening removes large pieces of waste rock and mechanical crushing is carried out.
Ore crushing and pretreatment
Further crushing is performed using jaw crushers and ball mills.
The particle size is controlled within 10 mm for easy roasting.
Calcination reduction reaction
Heating in a closed calcination furnace (about 600~800°C)
Condensation and collection of mercury vapor
The mercury vapor produced by roasting is transported to the condensation system (usually a water-cooled or air-cooled system) through a pipeline.
The mercury vapor is cooled and condensed into silvery-white liquid mercury, which is deposited in the collection tank.
Purification (refining) of crude mercury
Physical filtration: remove solid impurities;
Chemical treatment: use nitric acid, sulfuric acid or iron filings to react with impurities;
Distillation refining: heat the mercury again to evaporate and condense it to increase purity.
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