Tried to get gold from mercury. Compound of gold and mercury. Thus, gold was first obtained from mercury in laboratory conditions.

The history of alchemy is largely the history of finding a way to turn lead or mercury into gold. They often spoke casually about the real chemical discoveries that the alchemists of the Middle Ages made along this path, without much attention. The main thing they were looking for was the Magisterium (also known as red tincture, the panacea of life, the elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone) - a certain substance, a reagent that would make it possible to obtain noble ones from base metals.

It is not known for certain whether anyone managed to obtain gold from mercury and lead using a chemical reaction, although there are still many legends about this. However, in the middle of the 20th century, a group of American physicists managed to obtain a small amount of a stable isotope of gold from mercury - but only by means of nuclear physics. The transformation of metals, also known as transmutation, turned out to be possible!

The story began in 1940. Then, in several laboratories around the world, experiments began to be carried out on bombarding mercury, which is adjacent to gold in the Periodic Table of Mendeleev, with fast neutrons. The first successful results of the experiments were announced in April 1941 at a meeting of American physicists in Nashville by Harvard scientists A. Sherr and K. T. Bainbridge.

They managed to obtain three isotopes of gold with mass numbers 198, 199 and 200. But they were not stable and turned back into mercury over a period of several hours to several days.

A way was needed to obtain a natural isotope - gold-197. This path, although not on purpose, was followed by the employees of the laboratory of Professor Arthur Dempster - physicists Ingram, Hess and Haydn. (Arthur Dempster is famous for creating the first modern mass spectrometer and discovering, along with F. Aston, a record number of isotopes of chemical elements).

In March 1947, this group of scientists, while studying the process of neutron capture by atomic nuclei, managed to obtain the desired gold-197 as a by-product. It was “extracted” from 100 milligrams of mercury-196 by irradiating it with moderate neutrons in a nuclear reactor.

The yield of stable gold was only 35 µg. This, by scientific standards, is a quite noticeable amount of artificial gold. A publication about the discovery appeared in the journal Physical Review. But the general public naturally did not notice the article entitled “Effective cross sections for neutron capture by mercury isotopes.”

However, in 1949, a certain “yellow” journalist published an article about the beginning of gold production in nuclear reactors. The result of the publication was panic on the French stock exchanges, which led to a collapse in gold prices. The panic only stopped in 1950, when the magazine Atoms published an article, “Transmutation of Mercury into Gold,” in which it was reported that the cost of producing artificial gold from mercury is many times higher than the cost of extracting natural gold from the most seedy gold ore.

35 micrograms of artificial gold are still kept in Chicago - at the Museum of Science and Industry. Since then, no one has seriously engaged in the production of gold-197 from base metals or tried to reduce the cost of the technology.

In the 21st century, unstable radioactive gold-198 is obtained from mercury-198, which is used as a medicine to obtain radiographs of human body organs (instead of X-rays) and to treat cancerous tumors. It turns out that atoms of such gold work like small X-ray tubes and kill cancer cells in a strictly defined area of the body.

And in the 21st century, “reverse alchemy” flourishes. From gold, for example, isotopes of the scientifically valuable elements francium and astatine are obtained, which simply do not exist in nature.

Photo: “Goden eggs in carton” (corbisimages.com/photographer/bevis-boobacca), Arthur Dempster (American Institute of Physics)

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For several years now, Adolf Mithe had been coloring minerals and glass under the influence of ultraviolet rays. To do this, he used a conventional mercury lamp - an evacuated quartz glass tube, between the electrodes of which a mercury arc is formed, emitting ultraviolet rays.

Later, Miethe used a new type of lamp, which gave a particularly high energy output. However, during prolonged use, deposits formed on its walls, which greatly interfered with work. Such deposits could also be found in used mercury lamps if the mercury was removed. The composition of this blackish mass interested the Privy Councilor, and suddenly, when analyzing the remainder of 5 kg of lamp mercury, he found... gold. Mitya wondered whether it was theoretically possible for mercury in a mercury lamp, as a result of the destruction of an atom, to decay into gold with the detachment of protons or alpha particles. Miethe and his collaborator Hans Stamreich conducted numerous experiments, fascinated by the idea of this transformation of elements. The starting material was mercury distilled in vacuum. Researchers believed that it did not contain gold. This was also confirmed by the analyzes of famous chemists K. Hoffmann and F. Haber. Mitya asked them to examine the mercury and residues in the lamp. With this mercury, which according to analytical data was free from gold, Miethe and Stamreich filled a new lamp, which then worked for 200 hours. After distilling off the mercury, they dissolved the residue in nitric acid and enthusiastically examined under a microscope what remained in the glass: there was a sparkle on the cover glass golden yellow agglomerate of octahedral crystals.

However, Frederick Soddy did not think that gold was formed by the abstraction of an alpha particle or proton. Rather, we can talk about the absorption of an electron: if the latter has a high enough speed to pierce the electron shells of atoms and penetrate into the nucleus, then gold could be formed. In this case, the serial number of mercury (80) decreases by one and the 79th element is formed - gold.

Soddy's theoretical statement reinforced the point of view of Miethe and all those researchers who firmly believed in the “decay” of mercury into gold. However, they did not take into account the fact that only one isotope of mercury with a cash number of 197 can turn into natural gold. Only the transition 197 Hg + e- = 197 Au can give gold.

Does the isotope 197 Hg even exist? The relative atomic mass of this element, 200.6, then called atomic weight, suggested that there were several isotopes of it. F.V. Aston, studying channel rays, did find isotopes of mercury with mass numbers from 197 to 202, so such a transformation was likely.

According to another version, from a mixture of 200.6Hg isotopes, 200.6Au could also be formed, that is, one or more isotopes of gold with large masses. This gold should have been heavier. Therefore, Miethe hastened to determine the relative atomic mass of his artificial gold and entrusted this to the best specialist in this field - Professor Gonigschmidt in Munich.

Of course, the amount of artificial gold for such a determination was very meager, but Mitya did not yet have more: the kinglet weighed 91 mg, the diameter of the ball was 2 mm. If we compare it with the other “yields” that Miethe obtained during transformations in a mercury lamp - in each experiment they ranged from 10 -2 to 10 -4 mg - it was still a noticeable piece of gold. Gonigschmidt and his collaborator Zintl found a relative atomic mass of 197.2 ± 0.2 for artificial gold.

Mitya gradually removed the “secrecy” from his experiments. On September 12, 1924, a message from the photochemical laboratory was published, in which experimental data were presented for the first time and the equipment was described in more detail. The yield also became known: from 1.52 kg of mercury, previously purified by vacuum distillation, after 107 hours of continuous burning of an arc 16 cm long, at a voltage of 160 to 175 V and a current of 12.6 A, Mite received as much as 8.2 * 10 -5 g of gold, that is, eight hundredths of a milligram. The “alchemists” from Charlottenburg assured that neither the starting substance, nor the electrodes and wires supplying the current, nor the quartz of the lamp shell contained analytically detectable amounts of gold.

However, a turning point soon came. The chemists became more and more suspicious. Gold is sometimes formed, and always in minimal quantities, and then again it is not formed. No proportionality is found, that is, the amounts of gold do not increase with increasing mercury content, increasing potential difference, or with a longer operating time of the quartz lamp. Was the gold that was discovered actually produced artificially? Or was it already present before? The sources of possible systematic errors in the Miethe method were checked by several scientists from the chemical institutes of the University of Berlin, as well as from the laboratory of the Siemens electrical concern. Chemists first of all studied in detail the process of distillation of mercury and came to an amazing conclusion: even in distilled, seemingly gold-free mercury, there is always gold. It either appeared during the distillation process or remained dissolved in the mercury in trace form, so that it could not be immediately detected analytically. Only after standing for a long time or when spraying in an arc that caused enrichment was it suddenly detected again. This effect could well be mistaken for the formation of gold. Another circumstance came to light. The materials used, including the cables leading to the electrodes and the electrodes themselves, all contained traces of gold.

But there was still a convincing statement from atomic physicists that such transmutation was possible from the point of view of atomic theory. As is known, this was based on the assumption that the mercury isotope 197 Hg absorbs one electron and turns into gold.

However, this hypothesis was refuted by Aston's report, which appeared in Nature magazine in August 1925. An isotope separation specialist was able to unambiguously characterize mercury isotope lines using a high-resolution mass spectrograph. As a result, it turned out that natural mercury consists of isotopes with mass numbers 198, 199, 200, 201, 202 and 204.

Consequently, the stable isotope 197 Hg does not exist at all. Consequently, it must be assumed that it is theoretically impossible to obtain natural gold-197 from mercury by bombarding it with electrons, and experiments aimed at this can be considered in advance as unpromising. This was eventually realized by researchers Harkins and Kay from the University of Chicago, who set out to transform mercury using ultrafast electrons. They bombarded mercury (cooled with liquid ammonia and taken as an anti-cathode in an X-ray tube) with electrons accelerated in a field of 145,000 V, that is, having a speed of 19,000 km/s.

Fritz Haber also performed similar experiments when testing Miethe's experiments. Despite very sensitive analysis methods, Harkins and Kay did not find any traces of gold. They probably believed that even electrons with such high energy were not able to penetrate the nucleus of a mercury atom. Or the resulting gold isotopes are so unstable that they cannot “survive” to the end of the analysis, which lasts from 24 to 48 hours.

Thus, the idea of the mechanism of the formation of gold from mercury, proposed by Soddy, was greatly shaken.

In 1940, when some nuclear physics laboratories began to bombard the elements adjacent to gold - mercury and platinum - with fast neutrons obtained using a cyclotron. At a meeting of American physicists in Nashville in April 1941, A. Scherr and K.T. Bainbridge from Harvard University reported the successful results of such experiments. They sent accelerated deuterons to a lithium target and obtained a stream of fast neutrons, which was used to bombard mercury nuclei. As a result of nuclear transformation, gold was obtained.

Three new isotopes with mass numbers 198, 199 and 200. However, these isotopes were not as stable as the natural isotope gold-197. Emitting beta rays, they, after a few hours or days, again converted into stable isotopes of mercury with mass numbers of 198, 199 and 200. Consequently, modern adherents of alchemy had no reason to rejoice. Gold that turns back into mercury is worthless: it is deceptive gold. However, scientists rejoiced at the successful transformation of the elements. They were able to expand their knowledge of artificial isotopes of gold.

Natural mercury contains seven isotopes in different quantities: 196 (0.146%), 198 (10.02%), 199 (16.84%), 200 (23.13%), 201 (13.22%), 202 (29 .80%) and 204 (6.85%). Since Sherr and Bainbridge found isotopes of gold with mass numbers of 198, 199 and 200, it must be assumed that the latter arose from isotopes of mercury with the same mass numbers. For example: 198 Hg + n= 198 Au + R This assumption seems justified - after all, these isotopes of mercury are quite common.

The probability of any nuclear reaction occurring is determined primarily by the so-called effective capture cross section of an atomic nucleus relative to the corresponding bombarding particle. Therefore, Professor Dempster's collaborators, physicists Ingram, Hess and Haydn, tried to accurately determine the effective cross section for neutron capture by natural isotopes of mercury. In March 1947, they were able to show that isotopes with mass numbers 196 and 199 had the largest neutron capture cross sections and therefore had the greatest likelihood of becoming gold. As a “by-product” of their experimental research, they received... gold. Exactly 35 mcg, obtained from 100 mg of mercury after irradiation with moderate neutrons in a nuclear reactor. This amounts to a yield of 0.035%, however, if the found amount of gold is attributed only to mercury-196, then a solid yield of 24% will be obtained, since gold-197 is formed only from the isotope of mercury with a mass number of 196.

With fast neutrons they often occur ( n, R) - reactions, and with slow neutrons - mainly ( n, d) - transformations. Gold discovered by Dempster's employees was formed as follows: 196 Hg + n= 197 Hg* + g 197 Hg* + e- = 197 Au

The unstable mercury-197 formed by the (n, g) process turns into stable gold-197 as a result K-capture (electron from K-shells of its own atom).

Dempster's employees could not deny themselves the pleasure of obtaining a certain amount of such artificial gold in the reactor. Since then, this tiny curious exhibit has graced the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. This rarity - evidence of the art of the "alchemists" in the atomic age - could be admired during the Geneva Conference in August 1955.

From the point of view of nuclear physics, several transformations of atoms into gold are possible. Stable gold, 197Au, could be produced by the radioactive decay of certain isotopes of neighboring elements. This is what we are taught by the so-called nuclide map, which presents all known isotopes and the possible directions of their decay. Thus, gold-197 is formed from mercury-197, which emits beta rays, or from such mercury by K-capture. It would also be possible to make gold from thallium-201 if this isotope emitted alpha rays. However, this is not observed. How can one obtain an isotope of mercury with a mass number of 197, which does not exist in nature? Purely theoretically, it can be obtained from thallium-197, and the latter from lead-197. Both nuclides spontaneously transform into mercury-197 and thallium-197, respectively, with the capture of an electron. In practice, this would be the only, albeit only theoretical, possibility of making gold from lead. However, lead-197 is also only an artificial isotope, which must first be obtained by a nuclear reaction. It won't work with natural lead.

Isotopes of platinum 197Pt and mercury 197Hg are also obtained only by nuclear transformations. Only reactions based on natural isotopes are really feasible. Only 196 Hg, 198 Hg and 194 Pt are suitable as starting materials for this. These isotopes could be bombarded with accelerated neutrons or alpha particles to produce the following reactions: 196 Hg + n= 197 Hg* + g 198 Hg + n= 197 Hg* + 2n 194 Pt + 4 He = 197 Hg* + n.

With the same success one could obtain the desired platinum isotope from 194 Pt by ( n, d) - transformation either from 200 Hg by ( n, b) - process. At the same time, of course, we must not forget that natural gold and platinum consist of a mixture of isotopes, so in each case competing reactions must be taken into account. Pure gold will eventually have to be isolated from a mixture of various nuclides and unreacted isotopes. This process will be very expensive. The transformation of platinum into gold will have to be abandoned altogether for economic reasons: as you know, platinum is more expensive than gold.

Another option for the synthesis of gold is the direct nuclear transformation of natural isotopes, for example, according to the following equations: 200 Hg + R= 197 Au + 4 He 199 Hg + 2 D = 197 Au + 4 He.

If natural mercury is exposed to a neutron flux in a reactor, then in addition to stable gold, mainly radioactive gold is formed. This radioactive gold (with mass numbers 198, 199 and 200) has a very short lifespan and within a few days reverts to its parent substances with the emission of beta radiation: 198 Hg + n= 198 Au* + p 198 Au = 198 Hg + e- (2.7 days). It is by no means possible to exclude the reverse transformation of radioactive gold into mercury: the laws of nature cannot be circumvented.

In the age of the atom, gold can be made. However, the process is too expensive. Gold produced artificially in a reactor is priceless. And if we are talking about a mixture of radioactive isotopes 198 Au and 199 Au, then after a few days only a puddle of mercury will remain from the gold bar.

Gold produced in a nuclear reactor

In 1935, the American physicist Arthur Dempster managed to carry out mass spectrographic determination of isotopes contained in natural uranium. During the experiments, Dempster also studied the isotopic composition of gold and discovered only one isotope - gold-197. There was no indication of the existence of gold-199. Some scientists assumed that a heavy isotope of gold must exist, since gold at that time was assigned a relative atomic mass of 197.2. However, gold is a monoisotopic element. Therefore, those wishing to artificially obtain this coveted noble metal must direct all efforts to the synthesis of the only stable isotope - gold-197.

News of successful experiments in the production of artificial gold has always caused concern in financial and ruling circles. It was so in the days of the Roman rulers, and it remains so now. Therefore, it is not surprising that a dry report on the research of the National Laboratory in Chicago by Professor Dempster’s group recently caused excitement in the capitalist financial world: in a nuclear reactor you can get gold from mercury! This is the most recent and convincing case of alchemical transformation.

This began back in 1940, when in some nuclear physics laboratories they began to bombard the elements adjacent to gold - mercury and platinum - with fast neutrons obtained using a cyclotron. At a meeting of American physicists in Nashville in April 1941, A. Sherr and K. T. Bainbridge from Harvard University reported on the successful results of such experiments. They sent accelerated deuterons to a lithium target and obtained a stream of fast neutrons, which was used to bombard mercury nuclei. As a result of nuclear transformation, gold was obtained!

The basis of the "transmutation" carried out by Sherr and Bainbridge is the so-called ( n, p) -reaction: the nucleus of a mercury atom absorbing a neutron n, turns into an isotope of gold and releases a proton R.

198 Hg+ n= 198 Au + R

This assumption seems justified - after all, these isotopes of mercury are quite common.

The probability of any nuclear reaction occurring is determined primarily by the so-called effective gripping cross section atomic nucleus in relation to the corresponding bombarding particle. Therefore, Professor Dempster's collaborators, physicists Ingram, Hess and Haydn, tried to accurately determine the effective cross section for neutron capture by natural isotopes of mercury. In March 1947, they were able to show that isotopes with mass numbers 196 and 199 had the largest neutron capture cross sections and therefore had the greatest likelihood of becoming gold. As a "by-product" of their experimental research, they got... gold! Exactly 35 mcg, obtained from 100 mg of mercury after irradiation with moderate neutrons in a nuclear reactor. This amounts to a yield of 0.035%, however, if the found amount of gold is attributed only to mercury-196, then a solid yield of 24% will be obtained, since gold-197 is formed only from the isotope of mercury with a mass number of 196.

With fast neutrons they often occur ( n, R) reactions, and with slow neutrons - mainly ( n, γ)-transformations. Gold discovered by Dempster's employees was formed as follows:

196 Hg+ n= 197 Hg* + γ
197 Hg* + e- = 197 Au

The unstable mercury-197 formed by the (n, γ) process turns into stable gold-197 as a result K-capture (electron from K-shells of its own atom).

Thus, Ingram, Hess and Haydn synthesized significant quantities of artificial gold in an atomic reactor! Despite this, their “synthesis of gold” did not alarm anyone, since only scientists who carefully followed publications in the Physical Review learned about it. The report was brief and probably not interesting enough for many due to its meaningless title: “Neutron cross-sections for mercury isotopes” ( Effective neutron capture cross sections for mercury isotopes).
However, chance would have it that two years later, in 1949, an overly zealous journalist picked up this purely scientific message and, in a loud market-style manner, announced in the world press about the production of gold in a nuclear reactor. Following this, major confusion occurred in France when quoting gold on the stock exchange. It seemed that events were developing exactly as Rudolf Daumann had imagined, who predicted “the end of gold” in his science fiction novel.

However, artificial gold produced in a nuclear reactor made itself wait. There was no way it was going to flood the markets of the world. By the way, Professor Dempster had no doubt about this. Gradually, the French capital market calmed down again. This is not the least merit of the French magazine "Atoms", which published an article in the January 1950 issue: "La transmutation du mercure en or" ( Transmutation of mercury into gold).

Although the magazine, in principle, recognized the possibility of obtaining gold from mercury using the nuclear reaction method, it assured its readers of the following: the price of such an artificial noble metal would be many times higher than natural gold mined from the poorest gold ores!

From the point of view of nuclear physics, several transformations of atoms into gold are possible. We will finally reveal the secret of the philosopher's stone and tell you how to make gold. Let us emphasize that the only possible way is the transformation of nuclei. All other recipes of classical alchemy that have come down to us are worthless, they only lead to deception.

Stable gold, 197Au, could be produced by the radioactive decay of certain isotopes of neighboring elements. This is what we are taught by the so-called nuclide map, which presents all known isotopes and the possible directions of their decay. Thus, gold-197 is formed from mercury-197, which emits beta rays, or from such mercury by K-capture. It would also be possible to make gold from thallium-201 if this isotope emitted alpha rays. However, this is not observed. How can one obtain an isotope of mercury with a mass number of 197, which does not exist in nature? Purely theoretically, it can be obtained from thallium-197, and the latter from lead-197. Both nuclides spontaneously transform into mercury-197 and thallium-197, respectively, with the capture of an electron. In practice, this would be the only, albeit only theoretical, possibility of making gold from lead. However, lead-197 is also only an artificial isotope, which must first be obtained by a nuclear reaction. It won't work with natural lead.

196 Hg+ n= 197 Hg* + γ
198 Hg+ n= 197 Hg* + 2n
194 Pt + 4 He = 197 Hg* + n

With the same success one could obtain the desired platinum isotope from 194 Pt by ( n, γ)-transformation either from 200 Hg by ( n, α) -process. At the same time, of course, we must not forget that natural gold and platinum consist of a mixture of isotopes, so in each case competing reactions must be taken into account. Pure gold will eventually have to be isolated from a mixture of various nuclides and unreacted isotopes. This process will be very expensive. The transformation of platinum into gold will have to be abandoned altogether for economic reasons: as you know, platinum is more expensive than gold.

Another option for the synthesis of gold is the direct nuclear transformation of natural isotopes, for example, according to the following equations:

200 Hg+ R= 197 Au + 4 He
199 Hg + 2 D = 197 Au + 4 He

Would also lead to gold-197 (γ, R) -process (mercury-198), (α, R) -process (platinum-194) or ( R, γ) or (D, n)-transformation (platinum-196). The only question is whether this is practically possible, and if so, is it even cost-effective for the reasons mentioned. Only long-term bombardment of mercury with neutrons, which are present in a sufficient concentration in the reactor, would be economical. Other particles would have to be produced or accelerated in a cyclotron, a method known to produce only tiny yields of substances.

198 Hg+ n= 198 Au* + p
198 Au = 198 Hg + e- (2.7 days)
It is by no means possible to exclude the reverse transformation of radioactive gold into mercury, that is, to break this Circulus vitiosus: the laws of nature cannot be circumvented.

Under these conditions, the synthetic production of the expensive noble metal platinum seems less complicated than “alchemy.” If it were possible to direct the bombardment of neutrons in a reactor so that predominantly ( n, α)-transformations, then one could hope to obtain significant amounts of platinum from mercury: all common isotopes of mercury - 198 Hg, 199 Hg, 201 Hg - are converted into stable isotopes of platinum - 195 Pt, 196 Pt and 198 Pt. Of course, here too the process of isolating synthetic platinum is very complicated.

Frederick Soddy, back in 1913, proposed a way to obtain gold by nuclear transformation of thallium, mercury or lead. However, at that time scientists knew nothing about the isotopic composition of these elements. If the process of separation of alpha and beta particles proposed by Soddy could be carried out, it would be necessary to proceed from the isotopes 201 Tl, 201 Hg, 205 Pb. Of these, only the isotope 201 Hg exists in nature, mixed with other isotopes of this element and chemically inseparable. Consequently, Soddy's recipe was not feasible.

What even an outstanding atomic researcher cannot accomplish, a layman, of course, cannot accomplish. The writer Dauman, in his book “The End of Gold,” published in 1938, gave us a recipe for turning bismuth into gold: by splitting off two alpha particles from a bismuth nucleus using high-energy X-rays. Such a (γ, 2α) reaction is not known to this day. In addition, the hypothetical transformation

205 Bi + γ = 197 Au + 2α

cannot go for another reason: there is no stable isotope 205 Bi. Bismuth is a monoisotopic element! The only natural isotope of bismuth with a mass number of 209 can produce, according to the principle of the Daumann reaction, only radioactive gold-201, which with a half-life of 26 minutes again turns into mercury. As we see, the hero of Dauman’s novel, the scientist Bargengrond, could not get gold!

Now we know how to actually get gold. Armed with the knowledge of nuclear physics, let’s risk a thought experiment: let’s turn 50 kg of mercury in a nuclear reactor into full-fledged gold - into gold-197. Real gold comes from mercury-196. Unfortunately, only 0.148% of this isotope is contained in mercury. Therefore, in 50 kg of mercury there is only 74 g of mercury-196, and only this amount can be transmuted into true gold.

Let's be optimistic at first and assume that these 74 g of mercury-196 can be converted into the same amount of gold-197 if the mercury is bombarded with neutrons in a modern reactor with a productivity of 10 15 neutrons/(cm 2 . With). Let's imagine 50 kg of mercury, that is, 3.7 liters, in the form of a ball placed in a reactor, then the surface of mercury, equal to 1157 cm 2, will be affected by a flow of 1.16 every second . 10 18 neutrons. Of these, 74 g of isotope-196 is affected by 0.148%, or 1.69 . 10 15 neutrons. To simplify, we further assume that each neutron causes the transformation of 196 Hg into 197 Hg*, from which 197 Au is formed by electron capture.

Therefore, we have at our disposal 1.69 . 10 15 neutrons per second in order to transform mercury-196 atoms. How many atoms are these, actually? One mole of the element, that is, 197 g of gold, 238 g of uranium, 4 g of helium, contains 6.022 . 10 23 atoms. We can only get an approximate idea of this gigantic number based on a visual comparison. For example, this: imagine that the entire population of the globe in 1990 - approximately 6 billion people - began to count this number of atoms. Everyone counts one atom per second. In the first second they would count 6 . 10 9 atoms, in two seconds - 12 . 10 9 atoms, etc. How long would it take humanity in 1990 to count all the atoms in one mole? The answer is staggering: about 3,200,000 years!

74 g of mercury-196 contain 2.27 . 10 23 atoms. Per second with a given neutron flux we can transmute 1.69 . 10 15 mercury atoms. How long will it take to convert the entire amount of mercury-196? Here's the answer: it would require intense neutron bombardment from a high-flux reactor for four and a half years! We must incur these enormous costs in order to ultimately obtain only 74 g of gold from 50 kg of mercury, and such synthetic gold must also be separated from the radioactive isotopes of gold, mercury, etc.

Yes, that's right, in the age of the atom you can make gold. However, the process is too expensive. Gold produced artificially in a reactor is priceless. It would be easier to sell a mixture of its radioactive isotopes as “gold”. Maybe science fiction writers will be tempted to create stories involving this “cheap” gold?

"Mare tingerem, si mercuris esset" ( I would turn the sea into gold if it consisted of mercury). This boastful statement was attributed to the alchemist Raymundus Lullus. Suppose we turned not the sea, but a large amount of mercury into 100 kg of gold in an atomic reactor. Outwardly indistinguishable from natural gold, this radioactive gold lies before us in the form of shiny ingots. From a chemical point of view, this is also pure gold.

Some Croesus buys these bars at what he believes is a similar price. He has no idea that in reality we are talking about a mixture of radioactive isotopes 198 Au and 199 Au, the half-life of which is from 65 to 75 hours. One can imagine this miser seeing his golden treasure literally slipping through his fingers.

For every three days his property is reduced by half, and he is unable to prevent this; after a week, only 20 kg of gold will remain from 100 kg of gold, after ten half-lives (30 days) - practically nothing (theoretically, this is another 80 g). All that was left in the treasury was a large puddle of mercury. The deceptive gold of the alchemists!

Gold and mercury form an amalgam. The formation of this compound is based on the physical properties of metals. Amalgamation was widely used in the technological process for extracting precious components from rocks and for enriching the bulk material.

In search of the philosopher's stone

For many peoples of the world, gold is a symbol of high dignity and value. Quite often in everyday life, when characterizing a master, they say that he has golden hands. The definition of black gold in relation to oil has long become commonplace. As a symbol, this word has become part of proverbs and sayings, and achievements in science and technology are usually celebrated with awards made from solar material.

Since its emergence as a yellow metal as a means of commodity exchange, gold has become a symbol of wealth and power. The tireless search for the noble metal led to new geographical discoveries.

The achievements of alchemy, which is called the foolish daughter of chemistry, made it possible to experiment with chemical elements and compounds in search of the philosopher's stone, which turns any metal into gold.

The mercury-sulfur theory of the origin of metals developed by alchemists formed the basis of their knowledge. Sulfur and living silver were considered by them as the father and mother of metals. In their activities, alchemists used various metals and substances, each of which had a corresponding symbol or sign.

There are many recipes for obtaining the philosopher's stone, but the scientific approach allows us to explain the processes in real time, meaning and with the understanding that mercury cannot be converted into gold. But it is possible to create an amalgam of solar material with living silver.

Properties of solar metal and mercury

Living silver is a silver-colored liquid metal with a characteristic high degree of wetting of other metals. Mercury tends to clump into balls, attracting other particles to it.

This property can be observed in everyday life if a mercury thermometer is damaged. Small balls of the liquid component rush towards each other and roll into a large moving ball.

Mercury is a heavy chemical element, its specific gravity is only 6 units less than that of gold. Experienced gold miners placed liquid silver in sluices designed to wash the gold concentrate to trap the smallest particles and powder of the precious metal.

The method for producing amalgam requires high purity of gold. It should not be coated with iron, oil or other substances that impede wetting.

To extract all the noble component from the concentrate, it should be placed in a diluted 10% nitric acid solution. In this case, you should select an appropriate vessel for cleaning in order to avoid interaction of the acidic environment with the material of the container used.

heating the compound until the mercury completely evaporates;
by dissolving living silver in nitric acid.

The temperature at which mercury turns into vapor is 357°C. It can be achieved at the top of the open flame of gas burners. Heating should be carried out in a ventilated area in compliance with safety regulations, and remember that it is dangerous to inhale vapors of a liquid chemical element.

Solar metal amalgam

Gold in crushed form almost instantly disappears into mercury, being absorbed by the liquid metal. Amalgams, which contain up to 12% precious metal, look like pure living silver.

Therefore, during the flourishing times of alchemy, the most popular method of obtaining gold from mercury was to dissolve a small amount of the precious metal and then extract it.

The gold extraction method used in precious metal metallurgy consists of the following technological sequence:

quartz veins containing the precious component are ground to a fine state;
the powder is washed over copper sheets covered with a layer of amalgam;
dusty gold dissolves in the coating layer;
the formed compound is removed from the sheets and subjected to distillation;
The resulting ore after 1 stage of fractionation is treated with a cyanide solution in order to extract the precious component.

In watch and jewelry production, to protect products from exposure to atmospheric conditions, gilding is carried out, which is applied by electrolytic and contact methods.

The fire gilding method, based on the use of gold amalgam, is currently used extremely rarely. This method is based on the ability of the solar metal to dissolve in living silver to form an amalgam.

After applying the solution to the surface, the product is heated. As a result of heat treatment, the mercury evaporates, and the gold remains in the form of a sediment, tightly adjacent to the product.

Mercury can easily dissolve gold, so solar metal jewelry should not come into contact with living silver. Even the presence of mercury vapor in the air contributes to the dissolution of the precious metal, which changes its color, becoming white.

Gold amalgam is very concentrated, and if the dissolution limit of the precious metal is violated, it can disintegrate into small pieces. They can easily be assembled using a minimum amount of pure mercury, which the small parts of the amalgam will tend to.

Iron does not form a compound with mercury, which allows the use of steel vessels for transporting raw materials.

Of course, the method of amalgamating precious metals is very toxic and requires precautions. In Russia, the use of mercury in technological processes associated with ore beneficiation and gold extraction from rock is prohibited by relevant order.

In search of the philosopher's stone

Properties of solar metal and mercury

Solar metal amalgam

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