Mercury silvering methods. The technique was also used in Asia, for example "tokin" plating in Edo-period Japan. Mercury silvering Mercury silvering or fire gilding is a silvering technique for applying a thin layer of precious metal such as silver or gold (mercury gilding) to a base metal object. The process was invented during the Middle Ages and is documented in Vannoccio Biringuccio's 1540 book "De la pirotechnia". An amalgam of mercury and the precious metal is prepared and applied to the object which is then heated, sometimes in oil, vaporizing most of the mercury. The technique is dangerous since mercury is highly
Mercury(IV) fluoride more recent theoretical studies cast doubt on the possible existence of mercury(IV) and even copernicium(IV) fluoride. HgF is produced by the reaction of elemental mercury with fluorine: HgF is only stable in matrix isolation at ; upon heating, or if the HgF molecules touch each other, it decomposes to mercury(II) fluoride and fluorine: HgF is a diamagnetic, square planar molecule. The mercury atom has a formal 6s5d6p electron configuration, and as such obeys the octet rule but not the 18-electron rule. HgF is isoelectronic with the tetrafluoroaurate anion, , and is valence isoelectronic with the tetrachloroaurate (), tetrabromoaurate (), and