Mercury can conduct electricity similar to acids. Then why mercury is not an electrolyte similar to acids?
1 Answer
Jun 25, 2018
Acids, and salts in solution are conductive....
Explanation:
...why? Because the charged particles that constitute the acid and the conjugate ion are free to move in the liquid state.
On the other hand, metals, both solid and liquid, are highly thermally and electrically conductive and this is proposed to be a consequence of metallic bonding, which posits delocalization of electrons across a lattice of positively charged metallic ions.
Now mercury is one of the FEW room temperature, elemental liquids, but is nevertheless a metal, and participates in metallic bonding... Before the days of solid-state electronics, mercury was used as a make and break electrical switch.
Can you think of other room-temperature elemental liquids..?
