[Lt.Pliskin]

My wife broke an old mercury thermometer and asked me to clean it up (she is terrified of mercury). I did so and have it sitting in a jar to be disposed of later (i'll give it to my chemistry lab assistant, he'll know what to do with it). However, I neglected to remove a gold ring I was wearing at the time and the mercury seems to have formed an amalgam with the gold    . Is there any easy way to remove the Mercury without harming the gold? People have told me to use Nitric acid (I wont do this) or to drive off the Mercury by heating the ring with a butane lighter to drive off the mercury. Any suggestions?

P.S. I am currently not wearing the ring, I don't want my skin to come in contact with the mercury, is this an over reaction?

Thanks everyone

[constant thinker]

Heat would probably work (do it in a fume hood).

Nitric acid would not dissolve gold. You could just dip into nitric acid inside a fume hood for a little while. Then take it out, dip it into a mild/weak base. Then rinsing it with plenty of warm water should get rid of any irritants/harmful compounds. I think sulfur, zinc, and activated charcoal are used to clean up mercury spills, so neutralizing the solution and adding those 3 compounds should contain the mercury theoretically. Then you just have to figure out how to deal with the new probably very toxic liquid.

[UnintentionalChaos]

Is the ring intricate or a simple band? I would probably use the nitric acid route. The surface would probably look black afterwards from tiny particles of gold left there. Hopefully not too much mercury amalgamated and the amount of polishing to get it back to normal would be minimal. If it's intricate, it will be much harder to get back to normal.

[Lt.Pliskin]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I an reluctant to go the nitric acid route both because this ring is not pure gold (14k also contains copper, silver, etc.) as well as the fact that my college's lab isn't going to give me easy access to the nitric acid. The ring is very intricate (a class ring) as well, so UnintentionalChaos's complication definately comes into play. I am leaning towards heating it, but im not sure if a regular bic lighter will damage the ring. It also leaves a carbon residue, so im not sure how that affects anything. All in all, is there any other, more accessible route I could take? If worse comes to worse I will use the HNO3 route. Also, is this a time sensitive matter?

thank you 

[hmx9123]

It isn't a time-sensitive matter.  Take as much time as you'd like to deal with it.  I would have suggested the nitric acid route, as a pure gold ring would be unaffected by the nitric.  However, given that it is intricate and contains copper (which surely would be eaten by the nitric acid), I probably wouldn't recommend it.  I would personally not heat it.  You can warp the ring, leave carbon deposits, or perhaps retemper the ring by bringing it to a different eutectic point among the metals therein.  Personally, I'd take it to a jeweler and tell them what happened and if they have any suggestions for you.  There may be a simple way to remove it that is well known to them.  In any case, they'd be able to guarantee the ring's aesthetic properties.

[constant thinker]

Hmmm. You have a tough problem. I agree with hmx now. The jeweler is probably the best route. Good luck.

[Lt.Pliskin]

Thank you everyone for the help. I visited a few jewlers but it seems that every on is terrified of mercury. Most wont touch the ring and the only one that would said that they would send it off to  their repair clinic as they don't have the hardware in-store. However, this would be very costly. The ring seems to be "repairing itself" no though. The gold color has returned to the ring (or, rather the silver amalgam color has disappeared).  Im not sure how this happened, but i'm glad. In the mean time, I'll return to wearing the ring and see what happens.

[hmx9123]

Good luck.  I hope it works out for you.  The good news is that metallic mercury isn't particularly toxic, and it's also difficult to absorb through your skin, so being in contact with it may not be particularly horrible.  I'd take a plastic brush and vigorously scrub the outside of the ring, though.  It may help out.