Mercury selenide explained

Mercury selenide (HgSe; sometimes mercury(II) selenide) is a chemical compound of mercury and selenium. It is a grey-black crystalline solid semi-metal with a sphalerite structure. The lattice constant is 0.608 nm.

HgSe occurs naturally as the mineral Tiemannite, and is a component of the "intimate mixture" of HgSe and Se known as HgSe₂.^[1]

Along with other II-VI compounds, colloidal nanocrystals of HgSe can be formed.

Applications

• Selenium is used in filters in some steel plants to remove mercury from exhaust gases. The solid product formed is HgSe.
• HgSe can be used as an ohmic contact to wide-gap II-VI semiconductors such as zinc selenide or zinc oxide.

Toxicity

Toxic hydrogen selenide fumes can be evolved on exposure to acids. HgSe is non-toxic as long as it is not ingested due to its insolubility.

HgSe is forms large insoluble clusters with proteins during digestion, and a very precise co-administration of selenium during mercury ingestion has shown to reduce the resulting intoxication. The effect is too finicky for any practical use, but selenium's ability to complex mercury has been proposed to explain why relatively high mercury levels do not intoxicate deep-sea fish.^[2]

See also

• Mercury sulfide
• Mercury telluride
• Cadmium selenide
• Zinc selenide

References

1. Inorg. Chem.. 1997. 36. 942–943. Different Products from the Chemical and Electrochemical Reduction of 'HgSe₂': [K(2.2.2-cryptand)]₂[HgSe₂] and [PPh₄]₂[Hg(Se₄)₂]·en. Chang-Woo. Park. Donna M.. Smith. Michael A.. Pell. James A.. Ibers. 5 . 10.1021/ic960786v .
2. Watanabe . C. . Modification of Mercury Toxicity by Selenium: Practical Importance? . 10.1620/tjem.196.71 . The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine . 196 . 2 . 71–77 . 2002 . 12498318. free .

• Nelson . D. . Broerman . J. . Paxhia . E. . Whitsett . C. . Resonant Phonon Scattering in Mercury Selenide . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.22.884 . Physical Review Letters . 22 . 17 . 884 . 1969 . 1969PhRvL..22..884N .
• Jayaraman . A. . Klement . W. . Kennedy . G. . 10.1103/PhysRev.130.2277 . Melting and Polymorphic Transitions for Some Group II-VI Compounds at High Pressures . Physical Review . 130 . 6 . 2277 . 1963 . 1963PhRv..130.2277J .
• Gawlik . K. -U. . Kipp . L. . Skibowski . M. . Orłowski . N. . Manzke . R. . HgSe: Metal or Semiconductor? . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.3165 . Physical Review Letters . 78 . 16 . 3165 . 1997 . 1997PhRvL..78.3165G . .
• Kumazaki . K. . 10.1016/0022-0248(90)91059-Y . Dielectric properties of narrow-gap semiconductors . Journal of Crystal Growth . 101 . 1–4 . 687–690 . 1990 . 1990JCrGr.101..687K .
• SNV (1991) Guidelines on measures and methods for heavy metal emissions control. Solna, The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – Naturvårdsverket.

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20051019034837/http://ctdp.ensmp.fr/species/Tiemannite.html