[Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Re: Safely rehousing specimens contaminated with mercury / mystery Mercuric chloride reaction

Wed Nov 27 13:27:58 EST 2024

The tags might also be lead, or White Metal, a compound used to make "tin" soldiers.

Paul Callomon
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Shoobs, Nate <shoobs.1 at osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2024 1:15:08 PM
To: Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>; Joachim Händel <Joachim.Haendel at zns.uni-halle.de>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Re: Safely rehousing specimens contaminated with mercury / mystery Mercuric chloride reaction

External.

That’s an interesting idea Joachim. I considered a copper compound because of how copper-y the green color is.

Your mentioning it made me realize that I can probably check the tag composition by opening an uncontaminated jar catalogued around the same time and doing some tests on the metal tag (mainly, to see if acid causes a copper precipitate to form). I know for sure that stainless steel and aluminum are the two most common types. But some tags could have been brass!

As a side-note, it’s a minor miracle that we did not open any of these jars (ca. 96 of them have this mercury issue) during our alcohol inventory. We rehoused thousands of specimens into new jars. But in cases where bailtops had good seals and high alc levels, we generally didn’t reopen them. According to our inventory notes, none of these lots were opened. But the “weird green color” and “corroding tags” are mentioned, and actually those would have been priority lots to rehouse in the next round of alc inventory work. Good that we caught this now!

Will report back with results when I have them. Thanks to everyone for the helpful ideas and suggestions so far.

-N

--

[The Ohio State University]
Nathaniel F. Shoobs
Curator of Mollusks
College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Museum of Biological Diversity, 1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
614-688-1342 (Office)
mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu/>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 1:04 PM
To: Joachim Händel <Joachim.Haendel at zns.uni-halle.de>, nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Re: Safely rehousing specimens contaminated with mercury / mystery Mercuric chloride reaction

Brass tags - interesting! Knew it would be worth nudging you, Joachim, that would be a very reasonable explanation for the formation of mercury droplets on the metal tag. Concur with reasoning for the green colour stain. All the best Dirk Am

Brass tags - interesting!

Knew it would be worth nudging you, Joachim, that would be a very reasonable explanation for the formation of mercury droplets on the metal tag.

Concur with reasoning for the green colour stain.

All the best

Dirk

Am 27.11.2024 um 10:44 schrieb Joachim Händel:

Hi Nate,
I suspect the same as Dirk - thanks for quoting.

It is possible that the tag is not made of aluminium, but of brass.
This is also non-magnetic and possibly the copper from it could react with the mercuric chloride, producing mercury and copper chloride, which could also cause the green colouring.
But that's just a guess.

All the best
Joachim

--

Joachim Haendel

Center of Natural Science Collections
of the Martin Luther University (ZNS)
- Entomological Collection -

Domplatz 4
D-06099 Halle (Saale)
Germany

Phone:  +49 345 - 55 26 447
Email: joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de<mailto:joachim.haendel at zns.uni-halle.de>

>>> Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de><mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de> 25.11.2024, 18:40 >>>

Hi Nate,

corrosive sublimate was a common "enhancer" to increase the preservative strength of ethanol; John probably covered this in his email already.

Sublimate (mercury-II-chloride, Hg Cl2) was a common additive for the preservation invertebrates; see Piechocki, Makroskopische Präparationstechnik Wirbellose: https://www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/isbn/9783510652310/Piechocki_Handel_Makroskopische_Prapara?l=EN<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.schweizerbart.de/publications/detail/isbn/9783510652310/Piechocki_Handel_Makroskopische_Prapara?l=EN__;!!KGKeukY!2pBnCmPa2i0AzM9hjOJ4jzp2UkOJYVLL-cPbaS1rhQSXBDmbMP59iOW-DDs-DKyZ5geUk-t-uDMGoPv__SuLcQgXZg$>

Joachim Händel noted on earlier posts here on NHColl dealing with mercury that a simple test would be to put a copper coin or copper wire into the fluid; in presence of sublimate, a silver mercury layer should form on the copper. He might add if I am referring wrongly to his advise.

Depending on the specimens, it might not be easy to remove the mercury completely; the easiest would be to carefully remove the specimens without disturbing too much of the mercury deposits, but for sure there is additional mercury/sublimate in the specimens, which will be difficult to remove (especially in invertebrates).

At the second fluid preservation symposium in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Celine Stoffel, a colleague from the Natural History Collection in Lausanne, Switzerland, had an interesting approach to handle such an situation: knowing that she cannot get rid of the contaminants, she marked the jar accordingly informing all potential people that might handle the specimen in the future that the preservation fluid is contaminated.

Maybe this helps

Dirk

Am 25.11.2024 um 17:27 schrieb Shoobs, Nate:

Hey Tom,

The “floating around” was more of a casual figure of speech than a technical description. The beads were initially noticed adhering to the cotton cheesecloth bags which hold the soft bodies of individually numbered specimens, and upon shaking the jar these droplets/beads fall to the bottom and coalesce. They are certainly denser than the surrounding ethanol.

John Simmons sent me a copy of his article on mercury in wet specimens from the NHMW in Vienna [Collection Forum 2007; 22(1-2):32-36]. In that paper, the authors indicate that the only metal that would be liquid at slightly below room temperature is mercury. The temp of one jar in our collection this morning is 20.1º C. At that temperature, gallium or a gallium alloy would be solid (though some reading suggests there are some gallium alloys that have lower melting points, I don’t have any reason to think these would be present in the sample).

The evidence from the preparator’s dissertation that mercuric chloride was used to prep the specimens in question points to the substance being mercury that fell out of solution. The questions are – what reaction took place, and what are the potentially harmful products of that or subsequent reactions?

-Nate

-
Nathaniel F. Shoobs, Curator of Mollusks

College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University
Museum of Biological Diversity

1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
614-688-1342 (Office)
mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu/>

________________________________

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu><mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Tom Schiøtte <tschioette at snm.ku.dk><mailto:tschioette at snm.ku.dk>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2024 4:01:34 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu> <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu><mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Safely rehousing specimens contaminated with mercury / mystery Mercuric chloride reaction

Hi Nate, I am no chemist, but I wonder about your initial statement that the silvery beads were ‘floating around in the alcohol’. Do you mean on the bottom of the jar? Mercury weighs 13. 5 g/cm3. Best Tom Tom Schiøtte Collection manager,

Hi Nate,

I am no chemist, but I wonder about your initial statement that the silvery beads were ‘floating around in the alcohol’. Do you mean on the bottom of the jar? Mercury weighs 13.5 g/cm3.

Best

Tom

Tom Schiøtte

Collection manager, Echinodermata & Mollusca

Natural History Museum of Denmark (Zoology)

Universitetsparken 15

DK 2100 Copenhagen OE

+45 35 32 10 48

TSchioette at snm.ku.dk<mailto:TSchioette at snm.ku.dk>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu><mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Shoobs, Nate
Sent: 22. november 2024 20:30
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Safely rehousing specimens contaminated with mercury / mystery Mercuric chloride reaction

A question for the chemists in the room:

In examining a jar of freshwater bivalves from our wet collection, a student and I noticed that there were small silvery beads floating around in the alcohol. Upon closer inspection, we realized that these beads were actually liquid – to my eye, it looks and acts like elemental mercury (the droplets readily coalesce and break apart, are silvery white, and denser than the surrounding alcohol).

Here’s what we know about the contents of the jar:

  *   I figured the fixative used on these specimens contained a mercury compound, and found this information, in the doctoral dissertation of the preparator of the sample:

     *   “ The entire body of each animal was fixed whole, usually in FSA fixative (40 g mercuric chloride, 50 ml glacial acetic acid, 200 ml. commercial formalin, 800 ml distilled water) (Movat, 1953). After 24 hours In this fixative, the soft parts were rinsed In tap water and dehydrated in 50%, 70%, and 80% ethanol. They were stored In 80% ethanol until needed.”

  *   The specimens are currently, to the best of my knowledge, stored in a solution of “AGW”: (75% nondenatured ethanol, 3% glycerine, 22% distilled water).
  *   There is a metal tag, either steel or aluminum, in the jar, which is disintegrating, turning green, and forming many small grey tube-shaped tendrils of precipitate.

     *   The tag is not magnetic, but I don’t know if that’s because it has completely reacted, or because it is aluminum. I know that aluminum + water in the presence of ethanol tends to form Aluminum hydroxide, but this precipitate does not appear to be. It was curatorial practice from 1960-2019 to include a metal embossed tag with the cat number in wet lots, but I abolished this practice because of the tendency of metal to react with the preservatives.

  *   It seems evident that because there is free mercury in the jar, the mercuric chloride reacted with something in the jar. The green tinge in the alcohol makes me think that that reaction yielded some amount of chlorine gas, as well.

These are important voucher specimens, and ideally I’d like to figure out a way to safely rehouse them and keep them long term, but if there is no way to ensure they aren’t a health hazard going forward, I will contact our EHS department to coordinate disposal. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this?

Obviously I am not opening the jars or letting anyone else near them until I can figure out what reaction(s) took place in the jar. And unfortunately, this is one jar of a few dozen 1~3 liter Le Parfait bail top jars prepared by this researcher.

-Nate

--

[Image]
Nathaniel F. Shoobs
Curator of Mollusks
College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Museum of Biological Diversity, 1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
614-688-1342 (Office)
mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu/>

_______________________________________________

Nhcoll-l mailing list

Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>

https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l__;!!KGKeukY!2pBnCmPa2i0AzM9hjOJ4jzp2UkOJYVLL-cPbaS1rhQSXBDmbMP59iOW-DDs-DKyZ5geUk-t-uDMGoPv__SurQ-IXQA$>

_______________________________________________

NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of

Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose

mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of

natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to

society. See http://www.spnhc.org<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/www.spnhc.org__;!!KGKeukY!2pBnCmPa2i0AzM9hjOJ4jzp2UkOJYVLL-cPbaS1rhQSXBDmbMP59iOW-DDs-DKyZ5geUk-t-uDMGoPv__StdyjMxng$> for membership information.

Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

--

****

Dirk Neumann

Collection Manager, Hamburg

Postal address:

Museum of Nature Hamburg
Leibniz Institute for the Analysis

of Biodiversity Change

Dirk Neumann

Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3

20146 Hamburg
+49 40 238 317 – 628

d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>

www.leibniz-lib.de

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

--

****

Dirk Neumann

Collection Manager, Hamburg

Postal address:

Museum of Nature Hamburg
Leibniz Institute for the Analysis

of Biodiversity Change

Dirk Neumann

Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3

20146 Hamburg
+49 40 238 317 – 628

d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>

www.leibniz-lib.de

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20241127/7d7d8bf9/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: part1UEW7dg3cN8KyvVHaleibnizlibde.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3608 bytes
Desc: part1UEW7dg3cN8KyvVHaleibnizlibde.png
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20241127/7d7d8bf9/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3608 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20241127/7d7d8bf9/attachment-0001.png>