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Author: Subject: dimethyl mercury synthesis
zed
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[*] posted on 4-12-2013 at 16:28


Um. Seems like I remember how to do that. Isn't too difficult. But, since it is a serious environmental pollutant, could potentially be used as a WMD, and it doesn't even have the redeeming quality of getting folks high.......I'm not going to tell you.



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vmelkon
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[*] posted on 5-12-2013 at 09:53


Quote: Originally posted by ScienceSquirrel  
Metallic mercury is not very toxic as it is quite unreactive.
It had a lot of uses in the 17th to 19th century in the hat making business, scientific instruments, etc.
Long term exposure is not good; inhalation of the vapour seems worse than dealing with the liquid.
Mercury compounds vary in their toxicity.
Mercury I chloride is very insoluble and was used as a garden chemical until the latter part of the 20th century.
Similarly mercurochrome was widely available as a topical antiseptic and it is still available quite widely.
These compounds have quite low toxicity and are safe in the normal amounts used.
Soluble mercury salts eg mercury II chloride and nitrate are very toxic.
Alkyl mercury II compounds eg dimethyl mercury and diphenyl mercury are extremely toxic.


It was used in the garden? I had heard it was in some facial cream for making your skin whiter. It has been reported that some creams in China still have it.

It is insane. No amount is safe since it bio accumulates.
Unfortunately it is everywhere (fluorescent tubes, mercury-argon "neon" signs for their blue color, low pressure and high pressure sodium lights.
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[*] posted on 5-12-2013 at 11:43


They also used to eat arsenic to whiten their face. Half dead but fashionable.
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[*] posted on 6-12-2013 at 15:21


And the chinese emperor or whatever liked it enough to drink it and eventually ending up buried in it.

Dimethyl mercury is not that nasty in matter of amount required to kill: VX and Sarin can be counted in micrograms per minute, doses so small that with ordinary chemist equipment and safety precautions it is quite unavoidable to end up dead.

It is formed by treating sodium amalgam with methyl halides:

Hg + 2 Na + 2 CH3I → Hg(CH3)2 + 2 NaI

It can also be obtained by alkylation of mercuric chloride with methyllithium:

HgCl2 + 2 LiCH3 → Hg(CH3)2 + 2 LiCl
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zed
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[*] posted on 6-12-2013 at 17:04


VX and Sarin are hard to make, and quickly degraded. Building materials are hard to come by, and there are antidotes.

When that famous chemist was poisoned by a miniscule amount of Dimethyl-Mercury, the best doctors in the world were unable to diagnose and save her.

Grrr. This is why we usually don't give machine-guns to monkeys.

[Edited on 7-12-2013 by zed]
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TheChemiKid
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[*] posted on 6-12-2013 at 18:51


Quote: Originally posted by testimento  
And the chinese emperor or whatever liked it enough to drink it and eventually ending up buried in it.


Hah, what a coincidence. I learned about this in social studies just recently. This was Qin Shi Huang. He believed that it would provide immortality.
How wrong he was.:P




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[*] posted on 8-4-2016 at 23:15


Dissolve your mercury in chlorine bleach to obtain the chloride, neutralise the NaOH from the bleach with HCl carefully. I like to extract the chloride from the mess. Then simply dissolve in excess methanol with reflux. You can use your fractional distillation outfit or a simple reflux column to remove the excess methanol if you want or even distill the product, if you have any. I leave it in the methanol and freeze it until the guys from the I section or SAS pick it up.
I routinely use amalgams as catalysts so I take an excess of selenium to sequester heavies at ALL times. I'm still here.:P
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