Mercury belongs to chemical elements II of group of periodic Mendeleev's system, it represents heavy silver-white metal. At the room temperature mercury is in liquid state.
Instruction
1. In the nature seven isotopes of mercury meet, all of them are stable. Mercury belongs to number of rare elements. She participates in exchange processes of a lithosphere, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. More than 30 of its minerals, the most important of them — cinnabar are known. Minerals of mercury can be met in the form of isomorphic impurity in zinc-lead ores, quartz, carbonates and micas.
2. In earth crust mercury is in a scattered look, being besieged from hot underground water, it forms mercury ores. Its migration in water solutions and in gaseous state plays an important role in geochemistry. In the biosphere only the insignificant amount of mercury, mainly in clays and silt is occluded.
3. Mercury is the only metal which is in liquid state at the room temperature. Solid mercury is colourless, it crystallizes in rhombic singoniya.
4. Mercury has low chemical activity, it can keep the gloss beyond all bounds long at the room temperature in dry air. Oxygen does not oxidize it at a usual temperature, but at electronic bombing or ultra-violet radiation the processes of oxidation accelerate.
5. Becoming covered by an oxidic film in damp air, mercury begins to be oxidized oxygen at a temperature of 300 °C. With many metals mercury forms alloys — amalgams. Its many connections of a letucha, decay on light and are easily restored even by weak agents.
6. Receive mercury by a pyrometallurgical method, burning ore in furnaces of the boiling layer and also in muffle and tubular. At the same time the mercury which is in a type of cinnabar is restored to metal. It is deleted from a reaction zone in a vaporous state together with flue gases then clean in electric precipitators from the weighed particles and condensed.
7. Metal mercury is very toxic, its couples and connections are extremely poisonous, they collect in an organism. Being absorbed by pulmonary fabric, toxic substances get to blood where are exposed to enzymatic oxidation to ions, connect to molecules of protein and many enzymes that leads to a metabolic disorder and damage of nervous system. During the work with mercury it is necessary to exclude its hit in an organism through airways or skin.
8. Mercury is used at production of cathodes for electrochemical receiving chlorine and caustic alkalis. It is the main component for creation of gas-discharge light sources — mercury and fluorescent lamps. It is applied to production of instrumentations — thermometers, manometers and barometers and also to definition of purity of fluorine and its concentration in gases.