I need to solubilize HgNO3 in water at different concentrations, but I have notice an orange precipitate formation when I dissolved the salt in water. Probably it is mercury oxide. How can I solubilize the salt without this precipitate formation?
HgNO3 is a reduced form so it will react with dissolved O2,. Why dont you try use deoxygenate water? Of course, I assume you are working below the solubility.
Great recommendation by Benoit Barbeau . You can get deoxygenated water by bubbling with N2 or argon. I would advise using ultra high purity gas to avoid introducing atmospheric Hg0 which could be oxidized to HgII. This will be particularly worrisome if you have impurities in your water as well. While working with distilled water is common, using ultra filtered water (such as MiliQ) that has gone through a reverse osmosis column and 0.2 µm pore size fitlers and teflon lines is preferable.
You can also try acidifying the sample with trace element grade HNO3 or HCl. In that case, you may want to make the stock quite concentrated with Hg to avoid shifting the pH of whatever medium/study system you are working. This is typically what I have done when needing to make stocks from mercury salts that need to be stored long term. As an additional precaution, I recommend using teflon-lined lids if possible, glass containers, and wrapping them in aluminum foil to prevent any photochemical processes from changing Hg speciation.
Mercury can be challenging to work with so I hope this helps!
Let me know if you have any other questions,
Daniel
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