Does anyone know what RED MERCURY is?
George Goble
>In article <1991Dec17.2...@en.ecn.purdue.edu>, g...@en.ecn.purdue.edu
>(George Goble) writes:
>> I had somebody ask me what "red mercury" was.. I understand it
>> is expensive, and most of it comes from [the former] USSR.
>> Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
>> --ghg
>
>I suddenly remember a conversation I had perhaps half a year ago with a friend
>of mine, who heads a small group doing research on explosives at the Swedish
>Defence Research Agency ("FOA"). He mentioned that occasionally, they get
>strange phone-calls from people asking all kinds of questions about weapons,
[rest deleted]
Thanks for all the respones. I doubt if it is cinnabar also..
I have also heard about the "severe" export restrictions.
Would be interesting when you hear from your Swedish friend again..
thanks
--ghg
Mirja Karjalainen
minded me about fulminates used as detonators. Mercury fulminate Hg(ONC)2
is one of them, prepared by dissolving Hg in conc. HNO3 and pouring solution
into EtOH. It is highly explosive, stored under water. But, but it is GREY and
probably not very expensive.
There is also a liquid called mercurochrome, a red solution formerly used
as an antiseptic, maybe mercury(II)chloride HgCl2.
Mirja Karjalainen
University of Oulu, Finland
RICK CARROLL
KK-...@finou.oulu.fi (Mirja Karjalainen) writes:
Nope. The divalent chloride is white. HgI2 is red and has been used as an
antiseptic. Mercuric dichromate (VI) is also red as is mercuric sulfide,
ehich was used as a red pigment as well as an antibacterial agent. There is
also a red form of mercuric oxide. That's all the red ones i found on a
quick skim through the Merck Index anyway.
RIC
bill nelson
>>There is also a liquid called mercurochrome, a red solution formerly used
>>as an antiseptic, maybe mercury(II)chloride HgCl2.
>> Mirja Karjalainen
>>
>>University of Oulu, Finland
>>
>Nope. The divalent chloride is white. HgI2 is red and has been used as an
>antiseptic. Mercuric dichromate (VI) is also red as is mercuric sulfide,
>ehich was used as a red pigment as well as an antibacterial agent. There is
>also a red form of mercuric oxide. That's all the red ones i found on a
>quick skim through the Merck Index anyway.
>RIC
Merbromin is a green crystal - but when it is put into solution, it is red.
The formula is C20H8Br2-HgNa2O6. Like most mercury compounds, it acts as an
antiseptic and germicide.
Bill
ter...@phys.anu.edu.au
(George Goble) writes:
> I had somebody ask me what "red mercury" was.. I understand it
> is expensive, and most of it comes from [the former] USSR.
> Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
> --ghg
I suddenly remember a conversation I had perhaps half a year ago with a friend
of mine, who heads a small group doing research on explosives at the Swedish
Defence Research Agency ("FOA"). He mentioned that occasionally, they get
strange phone-calls from people asking all kinds of questions about weapons,
explosives... and that the FOA switchboard directs many of those to him.
As an example he mentioned a person who wanted to know about "Red Mercury".
(The phone conversation must have been held in Swedish, but I'm sure that
it was its English name he mentioned.) Offhand, he had no idea what it was,
so he asked the anonymous caller what it was used for and why he was interested
in it. Then he hung up... Out of curiosity, my friend checked it up, and I
remember that he mentioned that it was expensive, had severe U.S. export
restrictions on it, and had some military use (whether as an explosive or for
nuclear weapons applications, I don't know).
From that, I think that it cannot possibly be HgS (cinnabar), since it is
the most common form of mercury in nature, and thus must be very easy to buy
in large quantities on the international minerals market (although perhaps
most mercury is sold as metallic mercury). HgS is also a fairly uninteresting
compound (apart from being a source of Hg); it has a solubility product (in
water) so low that it doesn't even make a very good poison. Any other simple
mercuric compund such as the admittedly red HgO or HgI_2 seem equally unlikely.
Red mercury must be something else, possibly something that chemically has no
relation whatsoever to mercury (it would definitley not be the first time some
compund used for military purposes was known by a very misleading name...).
Unfortunately, I am not able to contact this friend via email, and I don't
have his fax-number; I happen to be approx. 15,000 km further away from him
than usual for a few more months. Perhaps I'll be able to contact him when
Xmas, New Year & all that is over, unless someone else has come up with a good
"recipe" by then. I tried the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and
Technological Terms, but didn't find anything relevant there.
Perhaps red mercury can be used as a dyestuff for your Xmas decorations?
Could this be the secret of the red colour of Santa Claus/Father Christmas
(choose what suits your side of the Atlantic best) clothes?
Tomas
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
! Tomas Eriksson, Dept. of Applied Mathematics, RSPhysSE, Australian Natio- !
! nal University, GPO Box 4, Canberra ACT2601, Australia !
! !
! ter...@phyvs1.anu.edu.au !
! What? A white Christmas? But Christmas is in summer! !
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
91F9843
There is also very explosive mercury compound most likely named "mer-
cury picrynate" (sorry, I don't know exact English name). The "picrynate"
seems to be a salt of organic "picrynic acid" : (NO2)3-C6H2-OH. But
I don't know what is the color of this compound :-(
Robert
Chuck McFarland
The military version of red mercury seems to be interesting
stuff. I also am having difficulties finding out what it is.
The BBC on Dec. 16 mentioned a press release from the Bulgarian
Ministry of Internal Affairs about red mercury on the black
market: '...the substance is an industrial mix of different
components, including some strongly radioactive and toxic ones...
...it has irreversible, including lethal effects on the human
body. Under definite circumstances the substance is violently
explosive...' The most recent (Dec. 22) Sunday Times cites Oleg
Glebov, editor of a Russian science magazine, about traffic in
red mercury: '...mostly found on Russian territory. He said the
compound could be used to improve the guidance systems on long-
range missles [I wonder how] and was extremely expensive, often
fetching [get this] $400,000 a kilogram.'
--
Chuck McFarland ap...@cleveland.freenet.edu (Internet)
McGean-Rohco Inc. ap513%cleveland.freenet.edu@cunyvm
Cleveland, OH (Bitnet)
ter...@phys.anu.edu.au
writes:
> There is also very explosive mercury compound most likely named "mer-
> cury picrynate" (sorry, I don't know exact English name). The "picrynate"
> seems to be a salt of organic "picrynic acid" : (NO2)3-C6H2-OH. But
> I don't know what is the color of this compound :-(
>
> Robert
It's English name is mercury picrate (or mercuric picrate). It is indeed the
mercuric salt of "picric acid", 2,4,6-trinitrophenol. The nitro groups in
orto and para positions increase the acidity of the phenol OH group, so this
is a rather strong acid. I haven't seen its mercuric salt, but I don't expect
it to be red. The picric acid itself is yellow (as many aromatic nitro
compounds - but they are usually translucent or transparent yellow crystals,
not the finely dispersed powder with essentially opaque red, or orange, colour
that most red mercury compunds, usually insoluble in most solvents, discussed
here display), and as far as I know the lead salt, which is also an explosive
compound (and more common than the mercuric one), is not very different in
colour from the acid.
The heavy metal picrates are initial explosives - they can be made to detonate
by a mechanical shock. This is also true of the (not red) mercury fulminate
mentioned earlier by KK-...@finou.oulu.fi. Most explosives of this kind is a
heavy metal (lead or mercury) salt of an "exotic" acid. Another example is
lead azide, Pb(N3)2 (this is actually used commercially for this purpose, or
has been). That the acids corresponding to these salts are exotic (who has
seen a bottle of HN3 or HONC on a lab shelf - and lived to tell?) is no
surprise - their salts are supposed to contain enough energy to create an
explosion using a rather small "disturbance".
But before you go to your lab to make these compunds - be aware that many of
them can detonate without being "shocked". Murphy's law applies to them -
they will detonate when you don't want them to. But if you work with really
*small* quantities (to keep alive - we are definitely talking <1g here),
and take suitable precautions, you can make heavy metal picrates by mixing
molten picric acid with metal oxide. The picric acid is low melting
(122 deg. C), should be rather pure not to explode by itself and should just
be heated to melting. If you then add e.g. PbO (perhaps by a long spatula from
behind a protective screen into a small crucible with a tiny amount of molten
picric acid) you will get a picrate that probably will detonate at once. Don't
forget that picric acid, and especially impure picric acid, can explode by
itself.
By the way, Robert, in which language is picric acid called "picrynic acid"
or something like that? I know it can't be German (Pikrinsaeure) or Swedish
(pikrinsyra).
Tomas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomas Eriksson ter...@phyvs1.anu.edu.au
Dept. of Applied Maths, RSPhysSE, Australian National University, Canberra
bill nelson
>There is also very explosive mercury compound most likely named "mer-
>cury picrynate" (sorry, I don't know exact English name). The "picrynate"
>seems to be a salt of organic "picrynic acid" : (NO2)3-C6H2-OH. But
>I don't know what is the color of this compound :-(
>Robert
You may be thinking of "mercury picrate". I have seen it mentioned in
my references, but there is nothing in my PATR 2700 reference set that
I could find on a quick scanning except "see picrates". There was
nothing listed for mercury forming a salt with picrynic acid.
If the mercury picrate runs true to the other picrate salts of the
heavy metals, it would indeed be very shock sensitive - much more
so than mercury fulminate.
According to my ancient copy of SACS - the following mercury compounds
are red.
Mercuric Chloride Iodide, Mercuric Chromate, Mercuric Cuprous Iodide,
Mercuric Iodide (red or yellow), Mercuric Oleate, Red Mercuric Oxide,
Mercuric Potassium Iodide, Red Mercuric Sulfide, Mercuric Tallium
Iodide and Mercurous Chromate. There are a number of others that are
white to red or yellow to red.
I am sure there are many more that are not listed in SACS.
Be kind of hard to make a choice without more information.
Bill
Allan Adler
oxygen by heating mecuric oxide, which was a red powder.
Allan Adler
a...@altdorf.ai.mit.edu