The Disproportionation Constants of Mercury(I) in Dilute Solutions

Abstract
The disproportionation constants for the Hg22+\ightleftarrowsHg(aq)+Hg2+ reaction have been measured in dilute mercury (I) perchlorate solutions over the temperature range from 15 to 30 °C. The technique was based on a simple kinetic method which made use of a characteristic property of the elemental mercury in aqueous solutions. The disproportionation constant at 25 °C and μ=0.1 was found to be 1.1±0.1×10−8 M, and the associated thermodynamic parameters were ΔH=13.2±0.2 kcal/mol and ΔS=8.0 e.u. The reliability of the method was discussed with relation to the reported values in the literature.