Mercury vacuum

Schwartz JG, Snider TE, Montiel MM. 1992. Toxicity of a family from vacuumed mercury. Am J EmergMed 10(3) 258-261. 

Above 30 or 40 mm Hg of vacuum, an ordinary digital battery powered vacuum gauge is sufficient. However, only a vacuum mercury manometer is accurate in the 5 to 15 mm Hg range. As long as the mercury was dry, such a gauge gave excellent results. But few of my clients now permit the use of mercury in the field. 

I have developed an alternate method that works almost as well as the vacuum mercury manometer. It s really the same idea (see Fig. 23.8). Fill the closed end of the tubing with baby oil and mineral oil. Make sure you get the last bubble of air out of the closed end of the tubing. Always use fresh oil to prevent moisture... 

The distillation of crudes chosen for their yield in heavy fractions is the most common means. Bitumen is extracted from the residue from a vacuum distillation column (a few dozen mm of mercury), the latter being fed by atmospheric distillation residue. Unlike the practice of a decade ago, it is now possible to obtain all categories of bitumen, including the hard grades. 

Mercury is extensively used in various pieces of scientific apparatus, such as thermometers, barometers, high vacuum pumps, mercury lamps, standard cells (for example the Weston cell), and so on. The metal is used as the cathode in the Kellner-Solvay cell (p. 130). 

When constructing a manometer of the type shown in Fig. 12(c), it is impor tant to apply a very high vacuum (e.g., with a Hy-Vac pump) to the manometer while the mercury in the left-hand (sealed) limb is heated until it boils unless this is done, traces of air will remain in this limb and cause inaccurate readings. During a distillation, the tap I should be kept closed except when a pressure reading is being taken if it is left open indefinitely, a sudden default by the distillation apparatus or by the pump may cause the mercury in the sealed limb of G to fly back and fracture the top of the limb. 

The so-called hydro-vac pump, shown in Fig. 11, 22, 2 (the upper half of the mercury reservoir and the column above it are insulated by a layer of asbestos), is an inexpensive, all-glass, mercury diffusion pump, which can be used in series either with an oil pmnp or with a water Alter pmnp (compare Fig. 11,21, 1) capable of producing a vacuum of at least 2 mm. It is accordingly of particular value in the organic laboratory for vacuum distillations, fractionations, sublimations and pyrolyses as well as for molecular distillations (see Section 11,26). The hydro-vac... 

When exhausting desiccators, a filter flask trap (see Fig. 77, 19, 2) should always be inserted between the desiccator and the pump. The vacuum should be applied gradually and should not exceed about 50 cm. of mercury for models (a), (6) and (d). These desiccators may withstand lower pressures, but it is generally considered unsafe to exhaust below this pressure unless the precaution be taken of surrounding the desiccator by a cage of fine-mesh steel wire collapse of the desiccator will then do no harm.J Models (c) and (e) may be exhausted to about 20 mm. of mercury a steel wire cage must be provided for this low pressure. 

Rubidium can be liquid at room temperature. It is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali group and is the second most electropositive and alkaline element. It ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently in water, setting fire to the liberated hydrogen. As with other alkali metals, it forms amalgams with mercury and it alloys with gold, cesium, sodium, and potassium. It colors a flame yellowish violet. Rubidium metal can be prepared by reducing rubidium chloride with calcium, and by a number of other methods. It must be kept under a dry mineral oil or in a vacuum or inert atmosphere. 

The drying agent was filtered off on a sintered-glass funnel and rinsed with some THF. The solution was transferred into a 500-ml wide-necked flask and concentrated in a water-pump vacuum. In order to remove the last traces of THF and some water the flask was connected directly (without a column) to a condenser and a receiver, cooled at -190°. The flask was evacuated by means of a mercury pump (p < 0.1 mmHg) and heated for 1.5 h at 85°C. The greater part of the mono-... 

Apparatus 3-1 rOund-bottomed flask, connected through vacuum tubes to a mercury manometer and a cylinder with oxygen (Fig. 6). 

Fig. 3J0 Plot of cumulative pore volume against logarithm of r the effective pore radius, (o) For charcoal AY4 A by mercury intrusion O by capillary condensation of benzene, (b) For zinc chloride carbon AYS A by mercury intrusion O by capillary condensation of benzene x by capillary condensation of benzene, after mercury intrusion followed by distillation of mercury under vacuum at temperature rising to 350°C. (Courtesy...

Removal of brine contaminants accounts for a significant portion of overall chlor—alkali production cost, especially for the membrane process. Moreover, part or all of the depleted brine from mercury and membrane cells must first be dechlorinated to recover the dissolved chlorine and to prevent corrosion during further processing. In a typical membrane plant, HCl is added to Hberate chlorine, then a vacuum is appHed to recover it. A reducing agent such as sodium sulfite is added to remove the final traces because chlorine would adversely react with the ion-exchange resins used later in the process. Dechlorinated brine is then resaturated with soHd salt for further use. 

In a typical commercial dry jet-wet spinning process, PPT polymer of inherent viscosity 6.0 dL/g is added to 99.7% sulfuric acid in a water-jacketed commercial mixer in a ratio of 46 g of polymer to 100 mL of acid. The mixture is sealed in a vacuum of 68.5—76 mL of mercury. Mixing takes place for 2 h... 

Mercury spills should be cleaned up immediately by use of a special vacuum cleaner. The area should then be washed with a dilute calcium sulfide solution. Small quantities of mercury can be picked up by mixing with copper metal granules or powder, or with zinc granules or powder. To avoid or minimize spills, some plants use steel trays as pallets so that a spih, whether of mercury or a mercury compound, is contained on the steel tray. 

Porosity and pore-size distribution usually are measured by mercury porosimetry, which also can provide a good estimate of the surface area (17). In this technique, the sample is placed under vacuum and mercury is forced into the pore stmcture by the appHcation of external pressure. By recording the extent of mercury intmsion as a function of the pressure appHed, it is possible to calculate the total pore volume and obtain the population of the various pore sizes in the range 2 nm to 10 nm. 

Ion engines are used in sateUites for orientation control. Cesium is vaporized in a vacuum and ionized as it passes through a heated porous tungsten disk, the ions are accelerated by an electric field to about 135 km/s and are neutralized by the injection of electrons and exhausted from the thmster. However, mercury, xenon, and argon-based ion engines are preferred. 

Donor and acceptor levels are the active centers in most phosphors, as in zinc sulfide [1314-98-3] ZnS, containing an activator such as Cu and various co-activators. Phosphors are coated onto the inside of fluorescent lamps to convert the intense ultraviolet and blue from the mercury emissions into lower energy light to provide a color balance closer to daylight as in Figure 11. Phosphors can also be stimulated directly by electricity as in the Destriau effect in electroluminescent panels and by an electron beam as in the cathodoluminescence used in television and cathode ray display tubes and in (usually blue) vacuum-fluorescence alphanumeric displays. 

Closed U tubes (Fig. 10-10) using mercuiy as the manometric fluid serve to measure direclly the absolute pressure p of a fluid, provided that the space between the closed end and the mercury is substantially a perfect vacuum. 

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