Why mercury is liquid

This highest number indicates that electrons have been filled in 6s at the last. That means that 6s has been filled, as it has two electrons, evident from the fact that 2 is written above it. This is where the reasoning comes. This gives mercury an unusually high stability. Now, the mantra of most atoms in chemistry is to combine and become stable. However, mercury is already stable.

So, the atoms in the structure tend to remain loose and make mercury liquid in state. The previous paragraph was probably the best way to explain this phenomenon.

Secondly, certain relativistic effects give mercury its characteristic nature. To put this effect in simple words, let us visualize an atom:.

Now, in this image, the green circles are the electrons and the blue-pink region is the nucleus. The electrons have a negative charge and the nucleus has a positive charge. Now, it is natural for the nucleus to attract the electrons. Moreover, the 6s area I talked about earlier is very far away from the nucleus The 6 in 6s indicates that it is 6 levels away from the nucleus. That distance is very far for an atom.

However, due to high speed revolution, it tends to come closer to the nucleus quite often, which also increases its mass due to high attractive forces. Now, unfortunately Or fortunately, however you would rather take it , the two electrons in the 6s area are the ones which mercury uses to form bonds.

Now, if those electrons are held tightly by the nucleus, there is no chance for them to form bonds. Now, considering the below image, where I have tried and shaded an electron in red for better understanding. However, the adjacent electrons will start to repel the red electron as like charges repel each other.

Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid at normal temperatures and pressure. Why is mercury a liquid? What makes this element so special? Basically, it's because mercury is bad at sharing—electrons, that is. Most metal atoms readily share valence electrons with other atoms. The electrons in a mercury atom are bound more tightly than usual to the nucleus.

In fact, the s electrons are moving so fast and close to the nucleus that they exhibit relativistic effects, behaving as if they were more massive than slower-moving electrons. It takes very little heat to overcome the weak binding between mercury atoms. Because of the behavior of the valence electrons , mercury has a low melting point, is a poor electrical and thermal conductor, and doesn't form diatomic mercury molecules in the gas phase. The only other element on the periodic table that is a liquid at room temperature and pressure is the halogen bromine.

While mercury is the only liquid metal at room temperature, the elements gallium, cesium, and rubidium melt under slightly warmer conditions. If scientists ever synthesize a sufficient quantity of flerovium and copernicium, these elements are expected to have an even lower boiling point and perhaps melting point than mercury. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.

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