How could you determine if a silver liquid was Hg ( a liquid metal) or melted Ag? explain?
October 28, 2011
Of course, above 980C they will both be liquids, as the question says they are. However at that temperature mercury will be giving off a fair amount of mercury vapour which is visible if you shine a uv light on it as smokey shadows.
Alternatively pour a small sample into a test tube and cool it in a beaker of water. Mercury will remain liquid, silver
will solidify.
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Check the temperature. Silver melts at 981C. Mercury boils at 356 C.
*** UPDATE ***
"Of course, above 980C they will both be liquids"
No. The temperature of a liquid cannot exceed its boiling point. Boiling is what happens when the liquid changes phase to gas as the temp rises above the boiling point. If you put a thermometer in a pot of boiling water, the temperature of the liquid water will never go above 100 C. The water that exceeds that temp converts to steam. Since the melting point of silver is well above the boiling point of mercury, they cannot both be liquid in the same temp range (assuming standard pressure).
I would expect a "retired chemistry examiner" to know this.
If you’ve got an unknown silver liquid and you want to know if it is silver or mercury (as the question states), stick a temperature probe in it.
References :
Of course, above 980C they will both be liquids, as the question says they are. However at that temperature mercury will be giving off a fair amount of mercury vapour which is visible if you shine a uv light on it as smokey shadows.
Alternatively pour a small sample into a test tube and cool it in a beaker of water. Mercury will remain liquid, silver will solidify.
References :
retired chemistry examiner