Making a Dangerous Red Substance Called Mercury(II) Iodide

Mercury(II) iodide (HgI2) also called mercuric iodide is a chemical with a vibrant red color. We are making it from potassium iodide and mercuric chloride (HgCl2) in a double displacement reaction. It is a beautiful substance with a vibrant red color.
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[@AndersMidnatt]

This 'useless' red compound is a semiconductor being used in X-ray and gamma detectors operating at room temperatures.

[@davidcaressh2408]

Exactly Try n buy some. 😂 you’ll see right away there’s more to it than what you’re being told.

[@timkurz6086]

i had it in my ion lottery at university, immediatly recognized that vibrant orange colour and heated it to see if it would change to yellow, it did and that knowledge saved me alot of time and contact with this compound

[@That_Chemist]

It is beautiful!

[@THYZOID]

I was astonished the moment I made it. The color is really vibrant.

[@1brytol]

Hmmm, who do I see here?

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Very pretty! It's interesting how brightly colored some incredibly toxic compounds can be. I'd love to make some, but I'll wait until my son is older. He's at the stage where EVERYTHING goes in his mouth, lol.

[@bedlaskybedla6361]

HgI2 is thermochromic, which is really interesting property. Cu2[HgI4] and Ag2[HgI4] are also thermochromic.

[@SuperAngelofglory]

You really love mercury chemistry, don't you?

[@THYZOID]

Ye

[@ayoyai8163]

Yas

[@lukasz1128]

One of the most disappointing thing at The World is the toxicity of mercury, because other properties of this element are fantastic.

[@SuperAngelofglory]

@@lukasz1128 I think the toxicity is a direct result of some of those properties.

[@lioncub1257]

Thanks for the video. It will be interesting to see how stable the color is over time.

[@omvishe9994]

Last for million years 🤘🏻

[@user-gv2fw5nh4q]

Thank you so very much for the prompt response.

[@jozefnovak7750]

Super! Thank you very much!

[@midwestchem368]

Great video dude! I always found it very interesting how slowly mercuric chloride dissolves in water.

[@bromisovalum8417]

Even mercuric acetate dissolved slowly in my experience. It seems to be a common trait amongst some soluble heavy metal salts. Palladium chloride for example always took ages to dissolve completely in my experience.

[@aihumvee5418]

​@bromiso valum What are the materials used in making red mercury? Please help

[@Faadi15]

Good work

[@MetaHunter1]

Things I fear most: - mercury compounds - lead compunds - burning alive while being hanged from a tree with my own intestines

[@solemanmughal690]

Very nice

[@alacrity7591]

I'm probably one of the few commenters who like this video because I like iodides, not because I like mercury lol. Well, nice! I'm not super shocked since the colour (and the yellow form that can be achieved through heating!) is visible on Wikipedia, but still interesting to see. Though I would be interested in a demonstration of mercury(i) iodide - it's supposed to be yellow, but I don't see any pictures anywhere... Still, nice experiment as always~

[@THYZOID]

I have some other Hg(I) salts so I might be able to make it

[@alacrity7591]

@@THYZOID Nice! Hope it works!

[@lioncub1257]

Nice to meet a fellow iodide fan! Yesterday i finished making caesium tetrachloroiodide. A beautiful bright yellow. Caesium pentaiodobismuthate also a beautiful red and straightforward to make. Tin (ii) iodide made with hydrochloride acid as solvent is orange and remarkably stable. Manganese iodide hydrate is a nice pink and can be extracted simply by evaporating the water on a steam bath. And stable color. But many other iodides i made turned dark over time (in clear vials).

[@user-lh8we8hi8z]

I have a question.. What can we do if the red color is not formed?

[@jhyland87]

Curious, why did you want the mercuric chloride to be in excess? I thought usually the more toxic compound is the limiting reagent to ensure as much of it is used up as possible.

[@THYZOID]

With potassium iodide in excess a water soluble complex (potassium tetraiodomercurate) would be formed and therefore we don’t want an excess of KI even if it would be the most logical.

[@jhyland87]

@@THYZOID hmm, interesting. Makes sense. Thanks!

[@cloe8292]

I vaccini interferiscono con l'attività elettrica cellulare a causa della presenza di sostanze metalliche. Bisogna fare luce su quanto accaduto in passato e quanto accade con i vaccini ma la comunitá scientifica sta ancora in silenzio molto per la sua credibilità.

[@1038994]

@@THYZOID I was curious about this as well.

[@youneszarwal4300]

انا احب تجاربك لكن سؤال كيف يرجع الى الى عنصر الزئبق؟

[@hoggif]

You've made a fumehood finally? A tour about it could be interesting to see. There are quite a lot of problems to solve for diy fume hood like making it not corrode, making the fans and motors not ignite anything, scrubbers and so on.

[@THYZOID]

I bought this professional hood for 100 bucks

[@hoggif]

@@THYZOID What a deal!

[@bromisovalum8417]

Making a DIY fumehood isn't that hard, in my day I used an industrial-type high flowrate centrifugal fan (only paid 50€ for it). Corrosion indeed is an issue, as is making it guaranteed sparkless if you work with things like ether. Even with the best setup it is best to avoid things like releasing liters of HCl gas in it, you still have to use traps and scrubbers wherever you can.

[@nginngin4371]

@@THYZOID Sir , can you tell me how to make red mercury liquid???

[@adelinyoungmark1929]

damn, why is it always the toxic substances that are the most beautiful lol

[@pholpanotmodpradit4134]

Wow good

[@kenbrady119]

It would be cool to watch the HgI2 turn yellow by heating it.

[@karolus28]

Cool

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

color reminds me of cinnabar (even tho that's a bit darker) (which is Mercury(II)Sulfide btw, and you can "easily" distill it at 580°C to get relatively pure mercury)

[@THYZOID]

I still have 2kg of cinnabar but need to make a perfectly sealed still before distilling Hg

[@gracehelbert5858]

Please, can you buy pure red liquid mercury (100%) that I collect from a rock?

[@THYZOID]

no. i am not an idiot

[@joshp6061]

How do you make your bottle labels? They look very professional

[@karolus28]

he uses child labour. we need to cancel him

[@THYZOID]

privatfrickler.de/hazomat/

[@joshp6061]

@@THYZOID thanks!

[@Seedy446]

What was it that caused Dr. Karl Sharpless to lose his eye?

[@irreal_Steg]

where did you get mercuryc chloride?

[@THYZOID]

From a friend

[@user-gv2fw5nh4q]

Not got the final result as being seen in this video. Why?

[@THYZOID]

you likely used too much KI leading to the formation of water soluble K2(HgI4)

[@abs0lute-zer061]

Two videos in one day??

[@shinki5361]

I have a pretty stupid question... Why can't you let the Mercury react directly with the Iodine? Why is there a need for a displacement reaction? Great video though!

[@THYZOID]

you can do that and from mercury and iodine alone you can obtain red HgI2. The reason for the double displacement reaction is that it is much faster and cleaner though. HgI2 from your method will still contain traces of unreacted iodine and mercury whereas HgI2 from KI and HgCl2 will be decently pure

[@shinki5361]

@@THYZOID Ohhh that makes sense Thanks for the response !

[@THYZOID]

you're welcome!

[@ayoubebajdid]

hello can you help me i am a chemistry student

[@isadio6580]

Will it mix with mercury?

[@THYZOID]

no

[@1brytol]

Technically it is really similar to the famous golden rain demo. A toxic metal salt reacts with potassium iodide to make a colorful, insoluble toxic metal iodide. Soooo, this is crimson rain demo?

[@THYZOID]

For the golden rain experiment the lead iodide is being redissolved

[@1brytol]

@@THYZOID ah yes, forgot

[@spacefist6685]

Please do a lab tour.

[@karolus28]

didnt he do something like this already? not sure

[@spacefist6685]

@@karolus28 I dont think so. Could you send me the link if you have the video?

[@karolus28]

@@spacefist6685 oh, i think it was actually a vid showing his equipment sorry

[@AdedigbaLatifat]

I need witee and red

[@hanswurst8496]

HgCl2 ist Not so easy to get it would have been more intressting If you make OT from HgS

[@THYZOID]

It cannot be made directly from HgS. You need a water solubel mercury salt. It is however possible to get Hg from HgS (I´ll demonstrate two different ways of how to do this in the future) followed by converting to a water soluble Hg salt like mercuric nitrate

[@hanswurst8496]

@@THYZOID my idea was to try to dissolve it in 3HCl+1HNO3 then you could safely filter out sulfur but how to influence whether HgCl or HgCl2 goes into solution or even reduce it to mercury... absolutely no idea

[@cloe8292]

Il mercurio si trova anche nei vaccini insieme ad altre sostanze come stabilizzante.

[@bromisovalum8417]

You are referring to thiomersal, a well-established antiseptic for use in biological preparations. Nitromersol and phenylmercuric nitrate are other organomercury compounds also still used as preservative for vaccines and antibody preparations.

[@amrendramishra545]

This colouring silver

[@Xm797]

Breaking bad

[@moett9174]

Is it red mercury from the former Soviet Union? I need this, can I buy it? If possible, please leave the contact information

[@THYZOID]

Red mercury does not exist

[@saadtafahi3416]

Most of you say such words because you did not reach its dye and evaded it under the pretext that there is no red mercury, while there are many chemists who reached its dye.

[@KaliProductionz]

@@saadtafahi3416 bruv its a con

[@shaikrameez007]

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🤵🤵☺☺☺☺

[@7557adam]

Im a chemist, and i just gotta ask… why do you make so many toxic substances on such large scales? You could have more than halved your scale here and had more than enough product. I just think you should try to limit the hazardous waste you generate

[@THYZOID]

I can dispose of the waste for free and besides that I’ll try to recover as much of the Hg before disposing of the waste so I don’t really care

[@bromisovalum8417]

7557adam it's under 10 grams, that's small scale in my eyes, below 0.1 mole in general is small scale in my eyes. The hazardous waste can easily be limited by converting it into harmless sulfide. With all due respect let's not act like hysterical women.

[@7557adam]

@@bromisovalum8417 10 grams is not a small scale. Waste, even if neutralized, is still waste. It takes and time and resources to dispose of (in case you didnt know) especially for very toxic substances such as mercury. It’s just rude to so unnecessarily pollute the world when there’s enough chemical waste as it is. Good scientists try to be efficient and avoid being wasteful. Also, love your sexist comment 👍🏻

[@Xm797]

@@bromisovalum8417 hmmph women☕️

[@akashrathod2069]

Mere pas red markari he original 💯 mesej me

[@hmangaihafanaihmangaiha4003]

Sahi nakia

[@That_Chemist]

first

[@karolus28]

Cope

[@jogandsp]

What is up with home chemists and mercury(II) salts??? I LOVE chemistry. Can't get enough of it. But there's simply no justification for making/using something that toxic at your home.

[@THYZOID]

I wouldn’t recommend that most people deal with Hg salts too but if you know how to handle them safely AND have a way to properly dispose of any waste there’s nothing speaking against using them. Most home chemists don’t use Hg salts at all and I’m one of the few home chemists doing anything with them.

[@bromisovalum8417]

jogandsp you exagerrate. Sure, water soluble mercury salts are very toxic, but it isn't going to jump out of the bottle and attack you, so as long as you handle it with care you are fine. I mean, I used to have a tube of ammoniacal sublimate paste around that I bought at a flea market, from late WW2 days, the American army gave it to every soldier to take along as treatment for syphilis. Even touted "double strength" in big letters, 10%. And even today it seems HgCl2 still is the standard treatment for syphilis. It is good to be cautious but let's not overly panic, that only leads to hysteria.

[@ayoubbajdid1800]

hello can you help me i am a chemistry student

[@THYZOID]

depends

[@youneszarwal4300]

​@@THYZOID My friend's question, how is it due to the element mercury?

[@youneszarwal4300]

ايوب ارسلي رقمك واتساب ممكن غير انا ونتا لي عندنا نفس التخمام😂😂

[@emilmckellar4932]

Nee boet, the title should be what to do with two usefull reagets to produce toxic waste and an amost useless product, that is red. What a waste!

[@THYZOID]

For me the product is very useful. Regarding the waste... Bromine will be recovered from it

[@emilmckellar4932]

@@THYZOID Hg not Br is the toxic bit, better ways to get I from KI than via HgI2. But OK. I am on your Mono nitro benzoic acid video and I have more questions. Why not just buy it? Or do you want to exchange the COOH group with something useful, e.g an amine as a precursor to some nice dyes? your videos are relatively random

[@onehellofaboredguitarist4287]

HgI2 is actually pretty useful

[@icebluscorpion]

Isn't potassium iodide not In German table salt for the iodine intake 🤔?

[@THYZOID]

sure but much less than 0,01%

[@icebluscorpion]

@@THYZOID aha, ok👀! Die dosis macht das gift, verstehe🤔. Warum wird Kalium iodid verwendet und nicht Natrium iodid für das Küchen Salz 🤔.

[@GodIsReal..]

Cool