Yesterday I posted about fluorescence thermochromism, but “normal’ thermochromism is just as interesting as the fluorescent one.

On the gif above there is two ampule what contain silver and copper tetraiodomercurate, a complex of mercury iodide. The copper tetraiodomercurate (left side) is bright red at room temperature, but when it is heated e.g.: in hot water, above 67 °C it turns black. On the right side there is silver tetratiodomercurate (Ag2HgI4) what is yellow at room temperature, but when it’s heated above 50 °C, it turns orange. Since the color change is reversible, when it is cooled back to room temperature, the color also changes back.

9:30 pm • 17 February 2015 • 215 notes • View comments