HgCl is the empirical formula of Mercury I (mercurous) chloride, for which the full chemical formula is Hg2Cl2
Hg2Cl2
HgCl2 - mercury(II) chloride. Hg2Cl2 is mercury(I) chloride
Since mercury can be either a 1+ ion called mercury(I), or a 2+ ion called mercury(II), there are two possibilities.Formulaspotassium chloride is KClpotassium iodide is KImercury(I) chloride is HgClmercury(I) iodide is HgImercury(II) chloride is HgCl2mercury(II) iodide is HgCl2Equation with Mercury(I)KCl + HgI --> HgCl + KIEquation with Mercury(II)2KCl + HgI2 --> HgCl2 + 2KI
Hg2Cl2
mercury (II) chloride
Hg+Cl->HgCl
2KI + HgCl₂ -----> 2KCl + HgI₂
c4 +H10 --->CO+ H2O
HgCl2 - mercury(II) chloride. Hg2Cl2 is mercury(I) chloride
A single mercurous ion has two positive charges and contains two mercury atoms and therefore has the formula Hg2+2. This cation requires two chloride anions, each which has a single negative charge, for the electroneutrality required in a compound between them, resulting in the formula given.
Mayer reagent (for narcotic alkaloids) "... can be created by dissolving 1.358 grams of HgCl2 in 60 milliliters of water, and pouring that solution into a solution of 5 grams of KI in 10 milliliters of water." (quoted from patentstorm)
Since mercury can be either a 1+ ion called mercury(I), or a 2+ ion called mercury(II), there are two possibilities.Formulaspotassium chloride is KClpotassium iodide is KImercury(I) chloride is HgClmercury(I) iodide is HgImercury(II) chloride is HgCl2mercury(II) iodide is HgCl2Equation with Mercury(I)KCl + HgI --> HgCl + KIEquation with Mercury(II)2KCl + HgI2 --> HgCl2 + 2KI
S2Cl2 = disulfur dichloride, Cl-S-S-ClHg2Cl2= mercury (I) chlorideThe mercury (I) cation is Hg2^2+. It is sort of a diatomic ion. In the +1 oxidation statethere is no single Hg. In other words, HgCl does not exist. HgCl2 does exist, except in this case, mercury is in the +2 oxidation state.The only thing you have to remember is that there are no single mercury (I) ions, mercury (I) exists as Hg2^2+.I don't think Hg2Cl2 will be very ionic, what with an electronegativity difference of 1.16. That translates to a percent ionic character of 28.6 for the Hg-Cl bond.Hg2Cl2 would NOT be named mercury chloride. Mercury requires a Roman numeral in the stock system.Or you could name Hg2Cl2 as mercurous chloride.
To answer this question, you really need to know which anions are being used with these metals. To predict precipitates, you must know all the different ions and how they can combine. A precipitate will form when a pair of the possible combinations is not soluble. Some mercury salts are soluble and others are not, but mercury salts are not typically very soluble. Similarly, some copper salts are soluble, others are not, but they tend to be more soluble than mercury salts. So if you add two soluble copper and mercury salts together, there is a good chance that you will form a new INSOLUBLE mercury salt, and this will come out as a precipitate. Let me give an example. If you have copper(II) chloride (CuCl2) and you mix it with mercury(I) nitrate (HgNO3), both of which are soluble, then you will have the following ions floating around in solution: Cu2+, Cl-, Hg+, and NO3-. However, it turns out that HgCl is an insoluble compound. So each time these two ions bump into each other in the solution, they will form a precipitate due to the insolubility. However, both CuCl2 and Cu(NO3)2 are soluble, and so they will not precipitate. If instead you did the same thing but now used Cu(NO3)2 and Hg2SO4, no precipitate would form because both of those are soluble, and also so are CuSO4 and HgNO3. See the Web Links to the left of this answer for a table of solubilities.
The empirical formula is when you can not simplify the formula any further. Let's use the formula for glucose, C6 H12 O6 That is the molecular formula of glucose. The Empirical Formula of Glucose would be C1 H2 O1, because you can divide each element by 6. As for a compound such as ammonia N H3, that is it's Molecular Formula. It's empirical formula would be N H3 as well because it can not be simplified any further.