Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

What temperature does mercury in a sulfuric,citric, or phosphoric acid solution need to be brought to, to excite it?

I am not sure exactly what you mean by exciting mercury. I would need a much better description as to what you are trying to do with it. Be aware that amalgam itself is considered a Federally prescribed drug and possession is only legal if you have a Federal prescription license (only DMD or MDs can have this). It is illegal for a dentist to give you amalgam to experiment with.

My first impression as to your question is do not try any of this on your own. Mercury when pure is dangerous enough but when you start heating it and mixing it with other chemicals things can change in a hurry. Vaporous mercury will be emitted that is very dangerous to even be around. Working with mercury in this fashion requires HazMat gear and a filtered air hood. To eliminate possible harm to yourself you should have at minimum a full coverage rubberized suit with built in gloves, a full head cover with eye shield that seals to the suit (or is part of it), and a HazMat filtered or self-contained air supply. If you work on this material in a room then that room will have to be decontaminated afterwards so the high end filtered hood is also necessary. I do not believe that any teacher or parents will give you permission to try anything like this. If you do have access to this high end protection equipment then please work under the close supervision of someone that is familiar with working with mercury. The mercury vapor will penetrate the blood/brain barrier and go directly into your brain. This is where the phrase, "Mad as a hatter." came from.

Again I am not sure what you mean by exciting mercury. We had a problem in our lab where a gold wedding ring got polluted by mercury. I found out by experimentation that dropping the ring in room temperature nitric acid removed the mercury. I did not try either citric or sulfuric acid so I cannot answer what effect that would have on the ring, but I did find that nitric acid removed the mercury that had coated the ring.

I really want to caution you to not try to experiment with mercury unless you have access to a place that is set up to handle it.