Oxide Aluminum with Mercury:A Popsci Experiment

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    Aluminum Oxidation
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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on a Popular Science article detailing an experiment that uses mercury paste to accelerate the oxidation of aluminum. The mercury disrupts the aluminum oxide protective layer, allowing the aluminum to oxidize rapidly, resulting in a dark brown or black "rust." Participants express curiosity about the chemical reactions involved, particularly the unexpected coloration of the oxidized aluminum and the role of mercury as a potential catalyst. The discussion highlights the dangers of handling mercury, despite the intriguing nature of the experiment.

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This discussion is beneficial for chemists, materials scientists, and hobbyists interested in chemical reactions involving metals, as well as those concerned with the safety implications of using hazardous substances like mercury.

mrjeffy321
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I saw this arcticle on popular science's web site:
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how2/article/0,20967,693558,00.html

it tells about a way using mercury paste to make aluminum rust, very fast and crumble to dust.

as you can see in their picture, it apearently is true, and as they explain in the article, the mercury infiltrates the metal and disrupts its protective coating of aluminum oxide, allowing it to oxidize much more compleatly then normal, because its protective barrier is gone.

if you look at the "rust" around the base of the aluminum bar they destroyed, it looks dark brown or black, which seems odd to me, considering aluminum oxide is while, mercury is silver, and aluminum is silvery. aluminum oxide is extreamly stable and wouldn't want to normally react with the mercury, so why is all that stuff brown? mercury oxides are that color (HgO is yellow or red and Hg2O is black) but why would the mercury be reacting with anything in this instance?
 
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Mercury is greyish black, and amalgams may differ in color. In here, I think the mercury-aluminum alloy (an aluminum amalgam) is quickly oxidized. It "separates" some of the aluminum to react, I think.
 
but the paste you put on the surfave of the aluminum can only be put on so thick, and then once it is used up (fairly quickly I would think if the mercury goes directly into the aluminum-mercury allow) then it should stop, fairly quickly. but this seems to go on for hours, or longer it didnt say, and keeps going, I would think the mercury would have long been used up if that is the case.
 
I'm pretty sure mercury is just acting as a catalyst and remains free after the reaction.
 
O, but that doesn't explain the weird color of the "rust" shown in the picture anyway.

O well, that would be a cool reaction to test if, at least, mercury wasnt so blooming deadly.