Mercury(II) hydroxide

Mercury(II) hydroxide
IUPAC name mercury dihydroxide
Identifiers
ChemSpider	14227333
Jmol-3D images	Image 1
SMILES [Hg+2].[OH-].[OH-]
InChI InChI=InChI=1S/Hg.2H2O/h;2*1H2/q+2;;/p-2
Properties
Molecular formula	H2HgO2
Molar mass	234.605
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
Infobox references

Mercury(II) hydroxide or mercury dihydroxide is an inorganic metal hydroxide with the chemical formula HgH₂O₂ or more commonly written as Hg(OH)₂.

Synthesis

It is not possible to make the chemical by adding OH^- to Hg²⁺ in aqueous solution since this merely precipitates yellow solid HgO, although it is possible that Hg(OH)₂ is momentarily produced during the reaction.^[1]

The first experimental evidence for the existence of the molecule was reported by Wang and Andrews in 2004.^[1] They produced it by irradiating a frozen mixture of mercury, oxygen and hydrogen with light from a mercury arc lamp. The mixture had been produced by evaporating mercury atoms at 50 °C into a gas consisting of neon, argon or deuterium (in separate experiments) plus 2 to 8% hydrogen and 0.2 to 2.0% oxygen. The mixture was then condensed at 5 kelvin onto a caesium iodide window through which it could be irradiated.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Xuefeng Wang; Lester Andrews (November 18, 2004). "Infrared Spectrum of Hg(OH)₂ in Solid Neon and Argon". Inorganic Chemistry 44 (1): 108–11. doi:10.1021/ic048673w. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/ic048673w.