Cinnabar content. To produce liquid mercury (quicksilver), crushed cinnabar ore is roasted in rotary furnaces. Pure mercury separates from sulfur in this process and easily evaporates. A condensing column is used to collect the liquid metal, which is most often shipped in iron flasks. Associated modern precautions for use and handling of cinnabar arise from the toxicity of the mercury component, which was recognized as early as in ancient Rome. Because of its mercury content, cinnabar can be toxic to human beings. Though people in ancient South America often used cinnabar for art, or processed it into refined mercury (as a
Metal ammine complex is ammonia (pK ~ 33). For highly cationic complexes such as [Pt(NH)], the conjugate base can be obtained. The deprotonation of cobalt(III) ammine-halide complexes, e.g. [CoCl(NH)] labilises the Co-Cl bond, according to the Sn1CB mechanism. Metal ammine complexes find many uses. Cisplatin (PtCl(NH)) is a coordination compound containing two chloro and two ammine ligands. This is a drug used in treating cancer. Many other amine complexes of the platinum group metals have been evaluated for this application. In the separation of the individual platinum metals from their ore, several schemes rely on the precipitation of [RhCl(NH)]Cl. In some separation schemes,