Cleaning liquid mercury metal
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- Опубликовано: 27 фев 2016
- Reuploaded because I messed up some editing. Hopefully this one is good...
Hey guys, today we will be cleaning up some of my mercury metal. Remember that when working with mercury, you need to be in a well ventilated area because it gives off a lot of fumes.
Cleaning mercury like this is dangerous for obvious reasons...so please don't try this
Also, all mercury waste must be dealt with appropriately. No pouring it down the drain!!
I forgot to post where I got the procedure: digital.library.okstate.edu/oa...
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Nile talks about lab safety: • Chemistry is dangerous. 
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I was really concerned about this separatory funnel snapping in any moment
+Janusz Januszowski haha it's a tough funnel :)
+Nile Red Oh my gosh when you are vigorously shaking it...
I thought I'd be the only one thinking that throughout the whole video. The density of mercury sure makes it scary to move it too much in a glass container...
+Sh4d0wch40s Yes, I've seen a vigorous mercury pour break glass before.
+Sh4d0wch40s No......I was with you there!
If you get any resistance on syringe, avoid using too much force. I've had an o-ring fail on a syringe and it shot a nasty tight spray of chemicals to my face once. (Fortunately, no damage was done even though some of it was shot to my eye due to a small gap between safety glasses and the face. This is a good reminder of how easily something bad can happen.)
Did it hurt?
You alright?
@Corey Haha gay. Its funny because gay
You good
o ring is keyboard haha funny pog
Can't tell if it was oil or Mercury, but at 5:05 some liquid flies out when you were venting the sep funnel. Just a heads up.
We got a blooper.
How did you dispose of your mercury waste? Every source just says "properly" but nobody ever describes what that is!
+mrhomescientist Never do it improperly that is bad. Always do it properly....which means pay people to take it and make them deal with it.
+Nile Red Who will take mercury waste, though? Specifics! :) I have some contaminated filter paper from cleaning mercury that I need to deal with. It's currently sealed in a bag with sulfur to slowly convert to the sulfide.
mrhomescientist I am honestly not 100% sure. There are companies though that should. Also, some cities have yearly hazardous waste collections.
I'm curious why there's not more total recovery... Does it just get really impractical? I mean I'd think at some point, it would be worth it just for some of the other elements/compounds... Probably a bit of "one man's trash" vs places to store it and the cost of doing it...?
Throw it into a lake. There is so much mercury in our own drinking water that a small bit in a lake will make no difference.
I love your conscientiousness.
A lot of RUclips "chemists" get all offended at the thought that they might make a mistake, so they eschew all the rules.
I work with fluid-damaged electronics. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes, your brain forgets there's an uncapped fluid next to your valuable equipment, and then it's broken. Or full of mercury.
Best keep your mercury, and your soft drinks, in capped bottles!
5:01 lol a piece of mercury flew out of the funnel xD
+LargeVirus nice banter
Cubeazza 5:00 *
Cubeazza ignore me I read 5:10
@@VinceIsDatBitch 5:05
that's hilarious haha
Make a video on toxic waste disposal.
+Herkus Kaminskas
You can just consume it.
+Herkus Kaminskas Neutralize PH imbalanced compounds and get a chemical storage container and deliver it to your local community chemical waste facility. Don't pour the shit into your toilet. Done
feed it to the homeless
You've heard of NileBlue?
@@rimisakkablaramsa3002 This comment was made 5 years ago
I love flasks and tubes so much. I saved my clean ones from when I took Chem in college. It was one of my favorite classes (I held on to the notebooks too, too much hard work to just throw away!). This video was really cool. I'm glad I found your channel. :)
i'd love a q+a video! personally i dont have much questions because you know exactly what draws people's curiosities in and answer them, but i'm sure questions you find are really worth answering~~
I have a Corning pyrex manometer with inner and outer tube that uses about 7.4 ml mercury(about 100g).It measures vacuum between 1 mm and 160 mm. The mercury got dirty with vacuum grease and some other junk. I used your syringe-cotton filter idea and it cleaned the mercury beautifully! I rinsed the outer tube with 3 molar nitric and dried with paper towel in a spiral...sparkling clean! My.pump pulls about 7mm..thank you for your ideas on this video!!!
Once again, excellent video! I'd love to see the denatonium benzoate synthesis next. That should be really interesting.
Excellent!! I just recently recovered some Mercury from some large Mercury switches. This method of cleaning the Mercury will work perfectly for me.👍✌️
The traditional way to clean Hg is to shake it with HNO3. Because HNO3 reacts with Hg, the operation should be performed quickly. To clean up Hg spills, first collect all the Hg you can. Then rub powdered S into any cracks and crevices that Hg might have gotten in to. The S reacts with Hg to form HgS, which is non-volatile, and poses no hazard. This info comes from the 1967 edition of "Lange's Handbook of Chemistry."
These videos with handling mercury are pretty interesting to watch. Gives me a different opinion of the stuff after working for a company that did emergency response work, a lot involving mercury spills.
OMG, you need to see Cody's Lab videos! He will practically bathe in the stuff!
I’ve seen other videos of his. He has a great channel when it comes to playing with the stuff.
I've never done it or seen it done by anyone, but going solely by reduction potentials, adding a chunk of copper to the mercury waste should reduce the mercury so you can recover it.
Wow the glassware hold through the mercury well !
Next video for elemntal series or
extractions its been a while since them
As always nice video
nile pls do a Q&A
"MERUCRY WASTE"
might want to fix that.
+Connor Steppie haha, professional typo. Youve never heard of merucry?
***** Everything in general. The goal of the other channel is to be about science in general, so I am not confined to chemistry.
***** I prefer to stay on the things that are provable and backed by science. So flat eart and creationism are good, but 911 would be hard (besides the steel beam one)
Nile Red well, can't jet fuel make steel beams malleable? And not hard anymore?
Connor Steppie Pretty much
Thanks for your video, very informative. I have some dirty Hg from a precision clock regulator which has dirty Mercury on show I will only need your first filtering stage....Cheers.
Great video, I followed these steps to clean 1.2 L of switch scrap, in 200-300 ml increments. Even being careful, little tiny drops still got away from my primary containment, fortunately the secondary seemed to catch it. On my first two rounds of cleaning I had some nitrogen gas in the sep funnel when doing the Nitric Acid cleaning. I started washing more thoroughly after the caustic soda washing and the gas was not present in later washing. Also, I found it to be a good habit to keep returning the top most mercury in the sep funnel from each step to the beginning of the filtering process, my final product ended up being noticeably cleaner. Also I noticed that my later iterations seemed to have higher surface tension and hold bubbles a little longer, can you comment on what that says about the purity?
+Timothy Anderson I'm honestly not sure what that says about purity. As an update to this video though, you should not store the mercury under water as it can get "scummy" after a while. Store it without watee and in a secondary container with some sulfur in it
Thanks Nile!
Could you clean gallium, I have just short of 200 grams of the stuff, and I haven't been able to keep it clean.
I cleaned up a bottle of old and totally filthy scummy mercury to a visibly shiny metal that I could pour without leaving any deposits on the surface of a beaker by using a capilliary-sized hole in the bottom of a plastic container and letting it dribble out under gravity. Whilst it obviously didn't remove any impurities dissolved in the mercury, it did the trick for using the mercury for non-chemistry use.
could you eventually do some videos on what you do with waste and what kind of things you can do with it, such as whether or not some of the chemicals can be recovered, recycled or not
My vote is for a video about waste disposal or methylamine HCl. Do you plan to use your hexamine for that?
Have you been making biker meth?
Would you do videos on the toxic waste disposal process and cleaning of mercury (or other highly toxic compound contaminated) glassware?
Me in Louisiana wondering why he cannot do a distillation outside during the winter as I prepare to sleep with my AC on….
I look forward to distillation of mercury, that sounds scary.
Interesting stuff :) for the videos being edited, I'd like to see the iodine clock reaction. For the future videos, a pseudoscience series sounds interesting
Always nice videos ! I'd love to see teh new Pharao's experiment video *o*
Thank you!
I would love to see the "most bitter substance known" video next :)
thank you for these useful awesome scientific videos
would be cool to see an updated video.
How do you dispose of all different waste products?
+Carl Fürstenberg Definitely warrants its own video!
+Flick Cogswell This is youtube. You can post whatever you want on whatever video you want. Quit being such a baby, especially because he made a lighthearted joke about your candidate of choice and you threw a big hissy fit.
+Austin Anderson Agreed :-)
+Flick Cogswell Because this is youtube and you are making a big deal out of a lighthearted joke. Idgaf if you like Sanders, Trump, Clinton or a chicken McNugget, people have the freedom of speech.
is that what he does or what you think he does.
Always make sure to clean your mercury before drinking
You might have mentioned this in one of your previous videos, but is there a reason to vent the bottle between shakes even when its only mercury and water? Is this to make sure there is no pressure (or vacuum) buildup, or is there another reason?Great videos btw, thanks for uploading.
It is always a good idea when using a separatory funnel. A lot of solvents will generate pressure when you shake them, or maybe a gas is produced (like CO2). If you don't vent it, you risk popping off the stopper, even if you are holding it in place.
Your possible future video on Nitrous Oxide made me think that an interesting video might be exploration of selective catalytic reduction of NO and NO2 using a catalyst and Urea. This is what the Diesel Exhaust Fluid is used for that's sold at truck stops. DEF is 37% Urea . Modern diesel trucks inject this into the catalyst system that breaks down the NOx emissions from the truck into N2, O2, and H2O. And as a tie in we have the recent "Diesel Gate" from VW.
Does mercury nitrate pass through latex gloves as easily as dimethylmercury? I saw a horror story a while ago about a female scientist who accidentally got a couple of drops of DMM on her glove and it passed through it like paper towel... she died painfully.
You can also pick up drops of mercury with a strip of zinc.
Please do a video where you neutralize the waste water and the cotton!
Emil Almberg
luminol synthesis would be really cool as the next video :)
+JBFFSK18 Working on it! If not the next, it will still be soon
I have seen/done "luminol", however I am interested in the "Benzaldehyde" video. As for future my vote is for the "Pyridine" video. ;-)
Awesome, thank you.
Back in the 'olden days" (1970's) a quick way to clean mercury was to pour it into a leather shammy and squeeze it through by hand. Very easy and simple for removing dirt, dust and scum. The mercury goes through the pores of the leather like water through a towel (but without being absorbed).
Yea, back in the days when people thought it was intelligent to put asbestos in their homes, and lead in their gasoline so they can inhale it. In other words, it's a stupid idea.
@@shawnpitman876 Oh, you are soo clever. Actually, lead in gasoline made perfect sense and still does for aircraft. And using a shammy to clean mercury of dirt, dust and particles is still valid and perfectly safe when done with common sense care on a occasional basis. Go away smarty pants.
@@KB4QAA No, lead in gas never makes sense, not if you care about YOUR OWN HEALTH more than the health of your engine. Ya know, like any person who isn't riddled with brain damage from eating lead paint and inhaling lead their whole life.
But keep showing everyone how you'll try and justify killing yourself to save a few cents, like the drooling buffoon you are.
@@KB4QAA I have no idea what Shawn said (the only comments I can see are your first one and your most recent one), but leaded gasoline is unambiguously terrible and should never be used if its exhaust is going to be vented into the atmosphere.
@@General12th "Should" is a nice feeling. But for the moment it is necessary until a satisfactory replacement is developed, tested and certified for certain aircraft. Work has been ongoing since the mid 70's to develop it, and we still don't have it. It isn't for lack of trying. It's a tough nut to crack.
Did you clean it before or after it was in retrograde
Awesome video! I have a couple pounds of mercury that I've been needing to clean. However, I store mine in an erlenmeyer flask w/ a rubber stopper which I then keep in a plastic jar in the event the glass jar shatters. Should I add a layer of water to be extra safe against vapors?
+christopherhug It's only dangerous if you open it and let the vapors out. A water layer is always good though. Prevents vapor leakage
+Nile Red Thanks. It's weird I always notice a few tiny beads up top between the stopper and the glass. I guess this must be the vapors re-condensing back into liquid form.
hmm, i am not sure enough vapors would come off to do that
Please do more mercury videos!
Hey nile is it possible to change the makeup of mecury to make it non lethal? or turn it to gallium i doubt iit but im courious
Would you be able to put up a new site for the procedure? The current one does not take me to the proper site and all I can find are articles about mercury clean ups from spills rather than cleaning previously used Mercury.
Thanks.
i like vacuum idea much
this seems dumb . but while working with mercury if it is only contaminated with oxides will it mess up the reaction ? i spilled some mercury once from a 20 year old thermometer and when i collected it in a old glass storage container it split into two layers . one was Grey and other shiny . which is the oxide layer .
If you have mercury that has been in contact with other metals and formed amalgams how would you chemically separate mercury to ensure purity? Could you turn it into a salt, crystallize it out and recover the elemental mercury or would that be way too much work to be worth it?
Mercury amalgams don't form by reacting, but by dissolving. You could simply distill the Mercury and use it
I keep changing my water and it keeps getting grey coloured. Is it normal or is it just not clean enough yet?
What use is last cotton filtering? It was said, that it may be not necessary, but I am wondering what could the desired gain could be.
you are doing great job
thanks!
Can this be adapted to clean up gallium based alloys?!
Also, how do you get rid of trace amounts of aluminum from gallium indium alloy? Heating it with water? Heating it with dilute hydrochloric acid?
Maybe in the future, I will get tin and hydrochloric acid and make an aqueous solution of tin (II) chloride. Then alloy the gallium indium alloy with aluminum in water and then add the tin (II) chloride. Then gallium and indium will combine with tin to form the galinstan.
Thiophene might be cool too.
When distilling water (or any solvent) are solutes also present in the distilled product? if yes, to what extent?
Nile i would like to listen about pseudoscience and I would also enjoy a Q&A video. By the way I love your videos, please keep doing these.
Can you make the benzoic acid from sodium benzoate next please? And btw great vids! :D
As an Ontarian, any suggestions on places to get storage bottles for Mercury, or the pipette/bottles?
Good idea very good
Where do you get your tools at such as beakers, hot plates, and mixers?
Powdered sulfur on spilled mercury will convert it to the sulfide which has insignificant vapor pressure. Old electrochemist's method for treating mercury spills that got into cracks.
Nile: *Cooks "MERUCRY"
*Karen Wetterhahn wants to know your location*
Tried this try and remove the slag from my gallium.. not a good Idea. How would you go about cleaning gallium?
*Casually MacGyver's a vacuum out of spare lab equipment*
3:57 i would have tried to force it through the cotton with some water (the water used for storage to not contaminate more water).
So should I pour Mercury waste in a Small clay vessel sealed with a Clay Cap and Wax?I like my Idea.
Such merucry waste, very wow
I personally would like the new pharaohs serpent next, and calcium acetate filmed next
Methylamine, benzaldehyde, anddenatonium benzoate is my vote.
Is it mercury distillation time yet, is it warm up there in canada (greetings from wisconsin)
Does this work with gallium too?
Can we clean mercury amulgum by this process for Zink lead or copper impurities.
I just need to remove condensation that has accumulated in a vacuum carburetor, synchronizing tool that I’ve had for about 30 years. When I hook up before hoses to manifolds on a motorcycle to try to balance, the carburetors, the four glass columns get varying degrees of water above the mercury in the tubes… how can I remove just the water that has accumulated in the reservoir. There’s probably less than an ounce of mercury in the Reservoir total.
I considered using something other than mercury in place of the mercury in this for tube vacuum balance tool called “carb sticks “that was available back in the 70s and 80s when I was a motorcycle mechanic..
Maybe something like mineral oil? Or alcohol? Or just distilled water?
Does mercury have to be oil free to react properly in a high explosives synthesis?
Nile red could you make a video on how to make hgCI2 from Mercury
how many thermometers did you break togetall these mercury
No idea how i came here, but this was an interesting video.
Water DOES NOT prevent mercury vapors from passing upward. The mercury diffuses upward through the water, then the vapor appears above the water.
I have some Mercury and i took a look at it after watching this video and notice that it turned antique gold color.
I would share a photo but there is no button for that.
How to you clean the equipment and glassware you used seams risky to even use anything that touched the mercury.
It’s cool how mercury looks like it is away from the inside of the glass, like powder does, and water looks like it’s wider in the glass.
Assuming this is to do with the way water bends light? But it makes the Mercury look thinner lol
Why do you sometimes use the ceramic filter with disposable paper for vacuum filtration and sometimes the glass one with membrane? I only use a ceramic one and disposable filter paper,s but might there be an advantage to investing in a glass filter?
+Tom Dunn The glass one is chemically resistant. Also i generally prefer to use it because i dont need to find the rubber adapter that i always lose... For more inert stuff, both can be used though.
@NileRed plz make methyl mercury
I was wondering how you get rid of the chemical waste?
Hello
How to make red mercury sulfide (vermilion) reaction ..?
Can you share your videos?
Nice
Could you upload the azeotropic nitric acid and try to make the nitrous oxide pls ;)
I love chemistry!
doesn't nitric acid dissolve mercury?
So I have a little bit of mercury that I want to clean cuz it like brown n I want it to look shiny ✨ again like it supposed to look like do I use a mason jar? In pour ig in n add water to clean the mercury then use the syringe 💉 to filter out the dirty stuff the mercury has in it please let me know when u can thank u
for the videos being edited luminol should surely be the next followed by iodine clock and for the future videos nitrous oxide is definitely the best
youtube really said "yep 5 years old good to go on the recommendations"
Nile Red! Wouldn´t be better the wash the mercury with HCl or H2SO4 instead of HNO3?
+ChemicalMaster Honestly I don't know the reason 100% but I guess HNO3 is more reactive towards contaminant metals.
Nile Red But I think that these acids can react with contaminent metals while leaving the mercury untouched, unlike nitric acid!
+Nile Red were to you buy your metals like bismuth from?
I thought you posted this yesterday
Do you still plan on doing the distillation?
I do! I am just editing the huge backlog that i have now. I will do it soon though
can you make a video of cleaning gallium
I wish I could have a job doing stuff like nilered does :( but idk what that could be
i usually pour some sulphur powder to mercury splashes to dont get poisoned