Molecular structure of mercury fulminate unravelled 300 years after its discovery

Three hundred years after its discovery, a team of German scientists have finally been able to determine the crystalline and molecular structure of mercury fulminate.

Washington, Aug 26 : Three hundred years after its discovery, a team of German scientists have finally been able to determine the crystalline and molecular structure of mercury fulminate.

Mercury fulminate has for long been known to alchemists as a detonator to set off dynamite.

Now, the team of Wolfgang Beck and Thomas Klap�tke have been able to characterize its crystal structure and thus finally reveal its molecular structure.

In their report in the journal ZAAC - Journal of Inorganic and General Chemistry, they describe the orthorhombic crystals of mercury fulminate as consisting of separate, nearly linear Hg(CNO)2 molecules.

As part of their research, Beck, Klap�tke and their team irradiated small crystals with a uniform crystal lattice, known as single crystals, with X-rays.

The resulting X-ray diffraction pattern allowed the researchers to precisely calculate the positions of the individual atoms within the crystal and the distances between them.

Mercury fulminate crystals are orthorhombic and the crystal consists of separate Hg(CNO)2 molecules, each mercury atom being surrounded by two carbon atoms.

Beck said the measured positions and bond lengths confirmed a molecular structure of O-N=C-Hg-C=N-O.

"In addition, we can unambiguously show that the molecules in the crystal have a stretched-out, nearly linear form. They are not bent, and each mercury atom is not bound to two oxygen atoms, as they are amazingly still occasionally depicted in the literature," said Beck.

ANI