Mercury principal characteristics

Commercial tetralin contains naphthalene as the principal impurity and this interferes with the preparation of tetralin-1-hydroperoxide or with use of the hydrocarbon as hydrogen donor in hydrogen-transfer reactions. An early purification procedure is uninviting fractionation extraction in turn with mercury (to remove sulfur impurities), with mercuric acetate solution (to remove olefins), and with sulfuric acid fractionation. More recently Bass sulfonated the crude hydrocarbon with coned, sulfuric acid and added ammonium chloride to precipitate ammonium tetralin-6-sulfonate. The salt was crystallized until pure and hydrolyzed by steam distillation from sulfuric acid solution. Distillation from sodium gave material showing no ultraviolet bands characteristic of naphthalene. 

The principal sources of ultraviolet radiation are carbon arcs, xenon arcs, mercury arcs and derived fluorescent lamps. Comparison of the emission spectra of these light sources with sunlight is shown in Fig. 10 [15]. Energy characteristics of various light sources and their relation to the weatherability of plastics have been discussed by Hirt and Searle [16]. 

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