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Ethylmercury



Ethylmercury
IUPAC name Ethylmercury
Identifiers
CAS number
SMILES CC[Hg+]
Properties
Molecular formula C2H5Hg+
Molar mass 229.61 g/mol
Related Compounds
Related compounds Methylmercury,
Salicylic acid,
Thiomersal
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for
materials in their standard state
(at 25 °C, 100 kPa)

Infobox disclaimer and references

Ethylmercury (sometimes ethyl mercury) is a cation composed of an ethyl group and a mercury atom; its chemical formula is C2H5Hg+. The term 'ethylmercury' is sometimes used as a generic term to describe organomercury compounds which include ethylmercury such as ethylmercury chloride and ethylmercury urea. The CAS registry number for ethylmercury chloride is 107-27-7.

Ethylmercury is one of the metabolites of thiomersal, which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. For this application, the ethylmercury salt sodium ethylmercuric thiosalicylate is used. Thiomersal (C9H9HgNaO2S) is made from the combination of ethyl mercuric chloride, thiosalicylic acid, sodium hydroxide and ethanol.

Unlike methylmercury, ethylmercury has not been found to bioaccumulate.[1] The toxicity of ethylmercury is not well studied, but exposure standards based on methylmercury (such as those currently recommended by the EPA) are not demonstrated to be equivalent for ethylmercury.[2]

References

  1. ^ http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/thimerosal.htm NIAID Research on Thimerosal
  2. ^ http://www.ehponline.org/press/042105.html Thimerosal, Methylmercury React Differently in the Brains of Infants, Study Says. Environmental Health Perspectives April 27, 2005.

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ethylmercury". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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