Amalgam (chemistry) The aluminium is the ultimate electron donor, and the mercury serves to mediate the electron transfer. The reaction itself and the waste from it contain mercury, so special safety precautions and disposal methods are needed. As an environmentally friendlier alternative, hydrides or other reducing agents can often be used to accomplish the same synthetic result. Another environmentally friendly alternative is an alloy of aluminium and gallium which similarly renders the aluminium more reactive by preventing it from forming an oxide layer. Tin amalgam was used in the middle of the 19th century as a reflective mirror coating. A variety of
Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam of alchemical texts: Theatrum Chemicum, and commented upon by Pseudo Aquinas in Aurora Consurgens. They both also give his (modified) image of the sage holding a chemical table (see image above). Al-Tughrai was an 11th–12th century Persian physician. whose work the"Masabih al-hikma wa-mafatih al-rahma" (The Lanterns of Wisdom and the Keys of Mercy) is one of the earliest works of material sciences. Al-Jildaki who was a Persian alchemist urged in his book the need for experimental chemistry and mentioned many experiments "Kanz al-ikhtisas fi ma'rifat al-khawas by Abu 'l-Qasim Aydamir al-Jildaki". Jābir analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of Aristotle's