Re: Mercury scam?

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/6/2004 2:47:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, John Jacobus <crispy_bird@yahoo.com> writes:



>Can mercuric oxide be converted to (methylated?) to

>form dimethyk mercury?

>

I can't say for sure without doing some literature searching, buit I can say that it would be difficult.  In general, oxidation reactions have a favorable gibbs free energy and reduction reactions don't (most "natural" reactions seem to be oxidation reactions).  Mercury in mercuric oxide is the mercuric ion Hg++, which is the most highly oxidized form of mercury, so the reaction to go to methyl mercury would be energetically unfavorable.



In additon, the mercury content of coal is small (<0.1% by weight) and even if it all goes into the air (which is unlikely, given the density of mercuric oxide and modern control mechanisms), the dilution froma coal plant stack is about a factor of 10,000, so the concentration of mercuric oxide reaching the surface of any nearby body of water would be extremely small. I would not think it a significant factor in methyl mercury formation.





ruth

-- 

Ruth F. Weiner

ruthweiner@aol.com

505-856-5011

(o)505-284-8406



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