Nomenclature
CAS number: 21908-53-2
Mercury oxide (HgO); red precipitate.
HgO; mol wt 216.59.
Hg 92.61%, O 7.39%.
Description and references
Contains 99-99.5% HgO.
Properties
Bright red or orange-red, heavy, odorless, crystalline
powder or scales; orthorhombic structure; yellow when finely powdered.
Poisonous. Dec on exposure to
light into mercury and oxygen; at 400° becomes almost black, but red
again on cooling; at 500° dec into mercury and oxygen. d 11.14. Practically insol in water.
Sol in dil HCl or HNO3 or in solns of alkali cyanides
or iodides, slowly in solns of alkali bromides; insol in alcohol.
Protect from light.Use
In marine bottom paints, diluting pigments for painting
on porcelain, with graphite as depolarizer in dry batteries. In Kjeldahl
nitrogen determination; and as reagent for citric acid, thiophene,
glucose, aldehyde, urea, acetone. As reagent and catalyst in organic
reactions: J. S. Pizey,
Synthetic Reagents vol. 1 (John Wiley, New York, 1974) pp 295-319.
Therapeutic Category
Antiseptic (topical).
Therapeutic Category (Veterinary)
Has been used as a topical antiseptic.