Talk:Amalgam (chemistry)

Underlaying physics or chemistry of amalgam process?
No info, physics or chemical theories or researches are presented here of the amagamation process between mercury and other elements. If the process is similar to one metal melting and mixing with another liquid phase metal, this contradicts the fact that the almagamation process is exothermic, instead of endothermic as of melting and mixing other metals (ie, you need to input energy to melt and mix different metals)?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Skepticus (talk • contribs) 07:42, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

According to the reply here, https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/16304/what-is-the-chemistry-behind-amalgamation, it sounds like it's the analogue to a liquid solution, but with metals. However I am disappointed no one discussing whether this is a covalent bond or an ionic bond. From what I read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_bond, it sounds like it's an ionic bond, but in this case the conduction electrons are so free they work as a single glue or paste that binds all the positively charged metal ions together into a crystal lattice structure. This is as opposed to salt where the individual elements are oppositely charged.Waxsin (talk) 18:50, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Mercury salts soluble in water?
I work at a company that produces salts of mercury, in particular, mercury iodide and mercury bromide. Mercury iodide is not soluble in water. I don't think mercury bromide is, either. The blanket statement that "mercury salts are … highly toxic due to their solubility in water" is clearly not correct.

Johnny (talk) 12:21, 16 August 2011 (UTC)


 * If you could identify refs to support those statements, then someone (even you) could improve the article. -- Scray (talk) 17:59, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Mercury (II) salts, are more soluble, the bromide is 0.61 grams/100 ml water and the Iodide is 10 mg/100 ml (both at 25 degrees centigrade). Source Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 52nd edition, pages b109 and b110. Mercury being a heavy metal accumulates in the body, can cause brain damage and damage to the kidneys. Mercury (I) salts are less soluble, and in general less absorbed from the GI track, taking 5 times the dose for toxicity compared to the Mercury(II) salts, but it is nothing to fool with. Source: Poisoning, 8th edition, by Robert H. Dreisbach page 211.

But what is it?
I'm really having trouble understanding the basics of Amalgams. What does it look like? The article describes it as a 'substance' - is it illegal to smoke it? :-) Maybe call it a 'liquid alloy' or something?  I'm just guessing.

I assume it's some sort of metallurgy thing. I've read elsewhere that gold dissolves in mercury - is it like if I had gold spilled on the floor, I could use Mercury to clean it up?

Except it doesn't really 'dissolve' - because if it did the result would be a 'solution'. and it's not, it's an 'amalgam', right? kindof like absorb and adsorb. so it's one of those subtle variations that actually doesn't result in a solution, it just looks like it. and really, there's little rice kernels of gold floating in the mercury?

My picture is that you drop a gold bar into a tub of mercury. Then five minutes later, you stick your (gloved) hand into it and feel around, and Viola! the gold bar is gone, it has 'amalgamated' into the mercury and it all seems like a liquid now. Like that?

Or does it solidify like a tooth filling? Do they make fillings by pouring in a silver-mercury slurry into your tooth cavity and then ... magically ... remove the mercury... some mercury... do something to make it safe for someone to have in their mouth without getting mercury poisoning.

Is it like you're doing an engraving in Gold, and you make a small mistake and use Mercury to soften up the area and so you can fix it with your tools? And then the mercury 'dries' and goes away so the gold can solidify? Or do you sop it up with a copper woven wick or blow it away with air?

Would be nice to see an 'amalgam' photo that isn't dental fillings. Preferably something being amalgamated and melting like the wicked witch of the west. OsamaBinLogin (talk) 22:55, 24 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I'd also like to know more. Is it just an alloy with mercury? The opening line says "formed by the reaction of mercury with another metal" - what kind of reaction? (I thought that as alloys are mixtures rather than compounds, no chemical reaction occurs.) --Chriswaterguy talk 08:34, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Genetic
"Amalgam Causes Genetic Behavior Defects in Boys: Study" http://www.mddionline.com/article/amalgam-causes-genetic-behavior-defects-boys-study --84.1.201.118 (talk) 22:59, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Origin
Where does the word come from? Any ideas --46.234.9.209 (talk) 06:53, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

second sentence is false: iron does form amalgams
Here is a reference: http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-8984/4/44/024

"Stability and magnetic properties of an iron-mercury alloy"

ABSTRACT: "Iron amalgams have been studied by Mossbauer spectroscopy and magnetization measurements between 7 and 425 K. The Mossbauer spectra at 12 K show that the iron is present in at least two different sites. After heat treatments the Mossbauer spectra change into the typical spectrum of alpha -Fe, and the magnetic moment per iron atom, at 275 K increases. It is suggested that the iron forms a metastable alloy with mercury, which decomposes at about 360 K. The Fe-Hg alloy is found to be ferromagnetically ordered with a corresponding Curie temperature of about 445 K."

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996JMMM..164..327P

A discussion of topic: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2011-04/1304143502.Ch.r.html

I think what confuses people is that a powder of any other metal will simply dissolve in mercury. 172.5.154.148 (talk) 20:36, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

What is an amalgam exactly? Is it a mixture or a compound or both?
The term isn't clearly defined at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.156.11.10 (talk) 19:38, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

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Etymology
This word is first seen in European languages in 13th and 14th century Latin alchemy texts, where it meant an amalgam of mercury with another metal, and it was spelled amalgama. It lacks a plausible origin in terms of Latin precedents. In medieval Arabic records the word الملغم al-malgham | الملغمة al-malghama meaning "amalgam" is uncommon, but does exist and was used by a number of different Arabic writers. Today some English dictionaries say the Latin was from this Arabic, or probably was. But other dictionaries are unconvinced, and say the origin of the Latin is obscure.Dictionaries reporting the 13th-century Latin amalgama to be either surely or probably from Arabic al-malgham include Partridge (1966), Raja Tazi (1998), Random House Dictionary (2001), and Etymonline.com (2010). Loss of the first 'L' in going from al-malgham to amalgama (if it occurred) is called dissimilation in linguistics. Documentation in medieval Arabic for al-malgham(a) = "amalgam" is presented in Wörterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache, by Manfred Ullmann, Volume 2, on pages 901 and 902, year 1991, which collects examples from around a dozen different medieval Arabic texts. As an item supplementing Manfred Ullmann's collection, the Arabic dictionary of Ibn Sida (died 1066) states: "any melting substance such as gold, etc. mixed with mercury is called مُلْغَمٌ molgham" – لغم @ Ibn Sīda's dictionary. Ibn Sida's statement was copied into the dictionary of Ibn Manzur (died 1312) – لغم @ Lisan al-Arab. The Book of Precious Stones of Al-Biruni (died 1048), in its chapter on mercury, has grammatical plural ملاغم الذهب... ملاغم الفضة malāghim al-dhahab... malāghim al-fida = "gold amalgams... silver amalgams"; and elsewhere in the same book Al-Biruni has كالملغمة kal-malghama meaning a paste consisting of cowdung and salt (where Arabic kal- = "-like" = "sort of") – Ref. The Syriac-to-Arabic dictionary of Bar Bahlul (died late 10th century) says in Syriac that a ܡܠܓܡܐ malagma of mercury with silver is called الملغمة al-malghama in Arabic – ref: ܐܦܪܘܣܠܝܢܘܢ @ Bar Bahlul column 267, line 25. Additional details about the medieval word are at English Words of Arabic Etymological Ancestry: Note #24 "Amalgam". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.158.173.69 (talk) 12:59, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

what da hell does that mean?!?!
"somewhat high-purity gold." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.83.159.73 (talk) 23:45, 24 October 2019 (UTC)