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From: forbes@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Jeff Forbes)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Mercury and (real) dimes
Message-ID: <1990Feb27.055111.18154@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 27 Feb 90 05:51:11 GMT
References: <25E934B0.37FC@deimos.cis.ksu.edu> <89936@psuecl.bitnet>
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Reply-To: forbes@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Jeff Forbes)
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Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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In article <89936@psuecl.bitnet> peg@psuecl.bitnet (PAUL E. GANTER) writes:
>
>Not sure about the new dimes, but GOLD reacts pretty much the same way,
>apparently.  At a previous job, we used mercury probes to examine raw
>semiconductor wafers.  A spot of liquid mercury makes contact with one
>side of the wafer (the bare one), and a metal contact touches the gold-
>coated side of the wafer.  (The gold is deposited in a vacuum chamber--
>forget how thick it is...).  Anyway, if you get the mercury on the gold,
>it very quickly removes it!
>
>We tried this with various other materials in preparation to build our
>own probe.  We went with aluminum as it appeared unaffected by mercury.
>
>Just thought I'd throw that in....
>
>Paul
>

The mercury cannot amalgamate the aluminum though the oxide coat. Aluminium
can be amalgamated with certain mercury salts which is useful if you want to
react the aluminum with something that cannot break through the oxide layer.


		Jeff