This propensity to form amalgams makes solid sulfur the ideal choice for cleaning up mercury spills and preventing the spread of its toxic vapors. Whereas almost all metals can form amalgams with mercury, iron is the only notable exception.įor this reason, mercury was stored and transported in iron flasks. Like the noble gases, mercury forms very weak bonds due to its electron states. Mercury is exceptional in that it is a poor heat conductor, but a mild electrical conductor.ĭue to its electron shell configuration, mercury acts very similar to the noble gases, whose solids melt at fairly low temperatures. The most common deposits globally that contain mercury are cinnabar deposits.
Mercury has the smallest temperature range of any metal, meaning that its freezing point (-38.8 degrees Celsius) and its boiling point (356 degrees Celsius) are the closest together. Three other elements-caesium, gallium, and rubidium-are liquid at temperatures just above room temperature. While the element bromine has a similar property at room temperature, mercury is the only metal to be a liquid under normal conditions. Tubes of mercury have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to the early 1500s BC.Ĭivilizations as early as 500BC used mercury to create amalgams with other metals.ĭue to ignorance of its toxic properties, both the Greeks and Romans used mercury in medical ointments and beauty products. It symbol comes from its historically used Latin name, hydrargyrum, meaning "liquid silver." Mercury has been in use by ancient civilizations since before 2000BC. This silvery metal is a liquid at room temperature, the only metal to have that property, and historically is known as quicksilver. Mercury (Hg) has an atomic number of eighty.
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