Amalgam (chemistry) with copper. A nitric acid solution of salts under investigation is applied to a piece of copper foil, and any mercury ions present will leave spots of silvery-coloured amalgam. Silver ions leave similar spots but are easily washed away, making this a means of distinguishing silver from mercury. The redox reaction involved where mercury oxidizes the copper is: Dental amalgam has been studied and is generally considered to be safe for humans, though the validity of some studies and their conclusions have been questioned. Amalgam (chemistry) An amalgam is an alloy of mercury with another metal, which may be a
Mass concentration (chemistry) Mass concentration (chemistry) In chemistry, the mass concentration (or ) is defined as the mass of a constituent divided by the volume of the mixture : For a pure chemical the mass concentration equals its density (mass divided by volume); thus the mass concentration of a component in a mixture can be called the density of a component in a mixture. This explains the usage of (the lower case Greek letter rho), the symbol most often used for density. The volume in the definition refers to the volume of the solution, "not" the volume of the solvent. One liter of