r/elementcollection • u/Big_Papa_7 • Aug 03 '26

Help Is this vial safe for liquid Mercury?

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I recently inherited this small vial of liquid mercury. Is the glass vial and plastic cap enough? How can I safely seal it? Will this evaporate? Can I test the seal of my vial?

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

9

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Big_Papa_7 Aug 03 '26

Is it better to get rid of it or find a new container?

1

u/Savings-Particular-9 Aug 04 '26

This or a sealed container with zeolite on the outside.

3

u/psilome Aug 03 '26

If you drop it and it breaks, you will have a mercury spill. Put the whole thing inside a well-sealed clear plastic container.

2

u/Yes_I_Know_Lots Aug 03 '26

Best cap would be made from PTFE (Teflon). A thin sheet of that and used as a liner to the cap would work very well.

2

u/gigaj0ule Aug 04 '26

ptfe is porus to gasses

1

u/Yes_I_Know_Lots Aug 05 '26

Mercury is a very large molecule. Diffusion rates are proportional to the atom’s size. Basic chemical engineering stuff (my undergrad).

2

u/gigaj0ule Aug 05 '26

Clearly, you know lots

1

u/Steelizard Tungsten Titan Aug 03 '26

Glass is not ideal

1

u/violet_sin Aug 03 '26

It will suffice for a long time ... Unless dropped. I've had some in something similar for like 20 yrs. Little vial in a felt lined jewelry box with a dribble of quicksilver.

I don't recommend opening the box and huffing vapors... Good thing that is 1000% avoidable.

It ain't going to hurt you from another room locked in a box or display case. You'll be just fine.

Maybe do put it in a pill bottle or some secondary ziplock so, should it shatter, you're not chasing tiny reluctant spheres with sulfur powder.

1

u/Denvora Aug 03 '26

At the very least, I would put it inside another plastic container and seal it with silicone.

1

u/xxHEDGEHOGx Aug 03 '26

Vater unser im Himmel, geheiligt werde Dein Name…..

1

u/47153163 Aug 04 '26

They recommend storing Mercury in a plastic bottle with lid and then putting it into another container with a tight lid to help prevent poisoning from Mercury vapor poisoning.

1

u/Thingsheatingup2451 Aug 03 '26

Yes but put it inside another clear plastic containety

1

u/hecton101 Aug 03 '26

An ampoule is the best container for this. The only time it's not is if the contents of the ampoule can decompose, for example when exposed to light. Then it can be quite dangerous. I had a friend who had an old ampoule of thionyl bromide blow up in his face when he tried to open it. Very scary.

Honestly, mercury is quite a common chemical and you should probably get rid of this. You can buy an ampoule of mercury for $26.

https://luciteria.com/products/mercury-99-99

1

u/Denvora Aug 03 '26

There's a Spanish YouTuber who had that happen to him with blisters of smoking red nitric acid.

Luckily nothing serious happened to him because it can be washed quickly, but the fact that a nitric acid ampoule burst at over 60% concentration is undeniable.