Mercury polycations

Mercury polycations are a group of related polyatomic ions made from the chemical element mercury. They include the mercurous ion Hg2+2 and larger ions with many connected mercury atoms. Some polymer ions are large enough to be considered "infinite". Mercury making polycations gives it very different chemistry and crystal structure compared to related elements like zinc and cadmium.

The mercury atoms are connected by covalent bonds, not the metallic bonds that normally connect atoms of metals like mercury. This is one of the first examples of a metal-metal covalent bond discovered by modern chemistry.

Mercury polycations are found in some minerals.

References

  1. ↑ Brown, I. David; Cutforth, Brent D.; Davies, Colin G.; Gillespie, Ronald J.; Ireland, Peter R.; Vekris, John E. (1974). "Alchemists' Gold, Hg2.86 Asf6; an X-Ray Crystallographic Study of a Novel Disordered Mercury Compound Containing Metallically Bonded Infinite Cations". Canadian Journal of Chemistry. 52 (5): 791–793. doi:10.1139/v74-124.
  2. ↑ Volkova, L. M.; Magarill, S. A. (1999). "On formation of polyatomic mercury cations". Journal of Structural Chemistry. 40 (2): 262–269. Bibcode:1999JStCh..40..262V. doi:10.1007/BF02903655.
  3. ↑ Borisov, S. V.; Magarill, S. A.; Pervukhina, N. V. (2003). "[Hg3]4+Cation in Inorganic Crystal Structures". Journal of Structural Chemistry. 44 (3): 441–447. Bibcode:2003JStCh..44..441B. doi:10.1023/B:JORY.0000009672.71752.68.