Why does mercury form weak metallic bonds?

Question

5030 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-10-29T01:28:00

Because of the closed electron configuration of #"Hg"#.

The electron configuration of mercury is: #"Hg: [Xe] 4f"^14 "5d"^10 "6s"^2#.

All subshells are filled, so a #"Hg"# atom is less likely to ionize than other transition metal atoms.

Therefore, there are few free electrons in mercury, and weak metallic bonds are formed.