Question:

Is there mercury (Hg) in cell phones or cell phone batteries. If so how much, and what kind? Thanx?

by  |  earlier

0 LIKES UnLike

I am doing a presentation in school, and I would be ever so grateful if I could get even a single drop of mercury to show as a prop. I am fully aware of how dangerous and lethal mercury is as well as its toxic nature. I am sure I will be very careful with it, and will bring it to school in an airtight bottle. (really tiny bottle) I read that nonelectrical thermostats have small vials that contain mercury, but I dont have a nonelectric thermostat. I dont have old thermometers that contain mercury either. My next option is that they would be inside batteries. I looked through many of the batteries that I have (they are all alkanine batteries) and most of them say they are Mercury free. I heard that cell phone batteries also have mercury. If so, how much, nad how can I remove it to show it as pure mercury. Any suggestions on a good presentation would be helpful. I already broke a few thermometers to see if it was mercury, but sadly, it was gallium.

 Tags:

   Report

1 ANSWERS


  1. Mercury is very dangerous, and most schools would pale at the thought of any liquid mercury entering their premises (due to insurance/liability/clean-up concerns).  At the very least, you would not want to be responsible for the cost of cleaning up a mercury spill.  As much safer approach would be to bring in a solid object that contains mercury.

    If you have any old teeth with amalgam dental fillings (looks like silver), these contain mercury in a form that does not pose a large hazard.  In addition, you can buy a sample of cinnabar (mercury sulfide) - this is of course much safer than metallic mercury as it will not produce vapors.  A fluorescent light bulb contains mercury vapor, but not enough to pose a hazard, so this could be a good option.

    If you really want liquid mercury, a relatively safe option is to buy a mercury tilt switch from an electronics supplier.  A small amount of mercury is sealed in a glass tube, so the danger posed here is not great.  Look for a local surplus electronics store; this is also the type of switch present in the mercury-containing thermostats.

    Cell-phone batteries are almost always lithium-ion batteries, which contain no mercury.  They can however explode quite violently if tampered with, so don't even try to open one up.

Question Stats

Latest activity: earlier.
This question has 1 answers.

BECOME A GUIDE

Share your knowledge and help people by answering questions.