Chemical element · Atomic number 80
Mercury
Mercury in the periodic table: atomic number 80, electron configuration, atomic mass, physical data, oxidation states, media credit and visible sources.
Transition metal
liquid
200.59 u
Documented element sampleA documented, safely enclosed sample of elemental mercury.
Image credit: James St. John
Auto-oriented, limited to 1600 × 1200 pixels and re-encoded as WebP; the subject was not altered.
Atomic classification
Shell occupancy
Mercury in the Bohr shell model
This shows the electron distribution of the neutral atom in a simplified shell model.
- K · n=1
- 2 electrons
- L · n=2
- 8 electrons
- M · n=3
- 18 electrons
- N · n=4
- 32 electrons
- O · n=5
- 18 electrons
- P · n=6
- 2 electrons
- Electron configuration
- [Xe]6s2 4f14 5d10
- Electrons per shell
- 2 · 8 · 18 · 32 · 18 · 2
- Group
- 12
- Period
- 6
- Block
- D
- Element category
- Transition metal
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Physical and chemical properties
- Atomic mass
- 200.59 u
- Standard state
- liquid
- Density
- 13.5336 g/cm³
- Melting point
- 234.32 K
- Boiling point
- 629.88 K
- Electronegativity
- 2 (Pauling)
- First ionisation energy
- 10.438 eV
- Oxidation states
- +2, +1
- Discovery
- known since antiquity
Safety and periodic classification
Safety
Safe handling cannot be inferred from Mercury's position in the periodic table alone. Laboratory, classroom and disposal decisions must follow the documentation for the exact material and its safety data sheet.
Position and comparison
Mercury is in period 6, group 12 and the D block. Its direct neighbours by atomic number are Gold and Thallium. The recorded Pauling electronegativity is 2. Periodic trends are compared only through the separately sourced neighbouring values.
Sources and scope
PubChem attributes element data to sources including IUPAC, NIST and IAEA. Quanta stores the referenced snapshot locally and leaves unknown values unavailable.