Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: burn13090 on November 08, 2007, 08:13:19 PM
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When mercury amalgamates with another metal (i.e. gold, silver, copper) is it possible to retain all of the other metal?
I have a separation of compound project for my chemistry class, but my teacher, upon further research, gave me four elements [mercury and silver (amalgam) and gold and copper (14k gold)] that react with eachother. I read on a site that once mercury amalgamates with a metal, it is not possible to get all of the other metal(s) back. In a project where you must retain all original materials, this presents a problem.
I have read that mercury cannot be placed in a glass retort for distillation. Is there another way to separate these metals?