PHOTOCHEMICAL SEPARATION OF MERCURY ISOTOPES: III. THE REACTION OF Hg2026(3P1) ATOMS, PHOTOEXCITED IN NATURAL MERCURY VAPOR, WITH HYDROGEN CHLORIDE

Abstract

An investigation has been made of the reaction of Hg2026(3P1) atoms, photoexcited in natural mercury vapor, with flowing hydrogen chloride at 28–30 °C. Emphasis has been placed on the effect of reaction parameters on the Hg202 content of the calomel product of the reaction.Under fast-flow conditions it has been found that the calomel product contains 44% Hg202, corresponding to an enrichment of 48% over the normal abundance of 29.8%.In the presence of unsaturated compounds such as butadiene and benzene the enrichment is markedly increased. With butadiene and benzene as addends, the maximum enrichments were 98% and 85% respectively.The reaction with pure hydrogen chloride can be explained in terms of the sequence:[Formula: see text]where HgN is natural mercury and M is a third body, including the wall.In the presence of unsaturated compounds (U), additional reactions are postulated to occur:[Formula: see text]The increased enrichment in the presence of unsaturated addends is explained by the reduced rate of formation of HgNCl through cleanup of chlorine and hydrogen atoms by reactions [6] and [7].Under static conditions, the pure hydrogen chloride reaction formed a calomel product of normal Hg202 abundance. This finding is explained as a localized depletion of the unexcited mercury in Hg202, through reaction [1]. With increasing linear flow rate the depletion effect gradually disappears and enrichments maximize at high flow rates.The Hg202 enrichment was found to be very sensitive to the wall temperature of the Hg202 source. In a 50:50 v/v mixture of hydrogen chloride and butadiene the enrichment was found to decrease from 68% to 24% as the lamp temperature was raised from 25.5 °C to 50 °C. The effect is explained by temperature broadening of the emission line leading to overlap of the emission line on absorption contours adjacent to that of Hg202.Both the rate of deposition of the calomel product and the Hg202 enrichment were found to depend upon the concentration of natural mercury in the gas stream for hydrogen chloride – butadiene mixtures. Optimum conditions corresponded to a slight supersaturation of the stream with mercury vapor.