Why mercury is inliquid state?

Question

Yes , i know about atomic size but there are others which are solids.

Answer 1

Mercury has a much lower boiling point than other metals. But your question is valid. Why mercury? What makes it so special?

Simply put, it has to do with the mercury-mercury bonds that take place in the metal. See, a metallic bond is a very strong bond, sometimes moreso than an ionic bond, but it's not as conventional as an ionic bond. When two ions bond it's because one is a positive ion and the other is negative. This, of course, is because of the presence of more or fewer electrons that would make it neutral. In a metal, the nuclei are held in a sort of crystal where the electrons, instead of staying with one atom, move about and are shared by all the metal atoms. This is why metals conduct electricity so well. Mercury, however, has an electron configuration close to a noble gas (very inert gasses), so it doesn't like to give up its electrons easily. This makes it harder to bond to itself, and so instead of being solid, it is liquid. Mind you, mercury is not a gas. It does let its electrons out a bit; enough to be liquid and conduct electricity, just not to the extent that all the other metals do.

Oh, and mercury isn't alone. Gallium also has this problem, its boiling point just isn't below room temperature. In fact, the boiling point of gallium is 30 degrees celcius. That means that if you hold it in your hand long enough (human body temperature: 36 degrees), it will melt.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The forces of attraction between its atoms are not strong enough as to make it a solid.

Answer 3

All metals have a melting point. the melting point of mercury just happens to be much lower, -40 degrees.