Copper(I) chloride was first prepared by Robert Boyle in the mid-seventeenth century[4] from mercury(II) chloride ("Venetian sublimate") and copper
metal: HgCl2 + 2 Cu → 2 CuCl + Hg
This sounds like it would be quite visually interesting! Does anyone have an idea what to expect and if it is worth doing? I am pretty curious as to
if you'd see Mercury begin to pool around the copper metal as you would for the comparable reaction in silver nitrate.
gboneu - 27-5-2016 at 08:20
Hello, yes i made these experiment before, but it's not so surprising, i had to heat it up to get a faster CuCl deposit. And using mercury compounds
is always difficult because of their toxicity. Plus the mercuric chloride needs sometimes a little bit of HCl to get the solution cristal clear, this
get's some of the CuCl dissolved. In my case it precipitated as a powder and not as crystals, if you want crystals you have to deal with Concentrated
solution in HCl and evaporate it, with an inter atmosphere (Like N2 or CO2) and it's a pain in the ass --
