Compounds of mercury and a metal are known as what?
Mercury poisoning foods that have acquired mercury residues during processing, from exposure to mercury vapor in mercury amalgam dental restorations, and from improper use or disposal of mercury and mercury-containing objects, for example, after spills of elemental mercury or improper disposal of fluorescent lamps. All of these, except elemental liquid mercury produce toxicity or death with less than a gram. Mercury's zero oxidation state (Hg) exists as vapor or as liquid metal, its mercurous state (Hg) exists as inorganic salts, and its mercuric state (Hg) may form either inorganic salts or organomercury compounds. Consumption of whale and dolphin meat, as is the
Mercury polycations Mercury polycations Mercury polycations are polyatomic cations that contain only mercury atoms. The best known example is the ion, found in mercury(I) (mercurous) compounds. The existence of the metal-metal bond in Hg(I) compounds was established using X-ray studies in 1927 and Raman spectroscopy in 1934 making it one of the earliest, if not the first, covalent metal-metal bonds to be characterised. Other mercury polycations are the linear and ions, and the triangular ion and a number of chain and layer polycations. The best known polycation of mercury is , in which mercury has a formal oxidation state of +1. The