Ammonium dichromate + pellets of mercuric thiocyanate

Reaction of ammonium dichromate and pellets of mercuric thiocyanate. Also called the "Serpents in the Grass" reaction. Much more exciting than the ammonium dichromate volcano.

I AM NOT THE CREATOR OF THIS VIDEO. I uploaded this from one of my college profs, who posted a link to it.

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MIX REAGENTS TO DO THIS. Even if I did, only trained chemists should be messing around with the likes of Hg, CN and (NH4)2Cr2O7. A simple Google search will reveal how toxic these things are.

A post on another video like this adds the following:

"Hg(SCN)2 is considered to be Level 3 of Health danger by NFPA 704(the max lvl is 4), where level 3 stands for: " Short exposure could cause serious temporary or moderate residual injury (e.g., chlorine gas)." The reaction of Decomposion produces vapors of Hg, wich are very poisonous as well."

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• chemistry
• ammonium
• dichromate
• mercury
• thionycate
• serpents
• grass
• reaction
• volcano

[iceman5X75]

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!

[NLhardcorebobNL]

OMG A KRAKEN

[MsAnimechik]

@mgregggphone thanks a ton!!!

[mgregggphone]

@MsAnimechik the guy has two things going on here. First, he has a dichromate volcano going on. That is the reaction making the the black soot pile.

Then, he has pellets of mercuric thiocyanate in there. Mercury thiocyanate is a substance that used to be sold at fireworks stands. It's also known as "Pharaoh's snake". Search wikipedia and youtube for a better description.

They stopped selling mercury thiocyanate because it's decomposition products aren't the best to handle.

[MsAnimechik]

umm can someone explain to me how this works? im doin a project on mercury, so i found "serpents in the grass" and i looked up here, and thats what i found. But...how does this happen?

[madslasher666]

Christ mother fuck, we live in an awesome world!

[pjbKNIVES]

Chtulu, is that you?

[ArctusCanusLupus]

how much of ammonium dichromate did you use for something that big?

[ArctusCanusLupus]

how much does mercuric thiocyanate cost?

[ArctusCanusLupus]

OMG! Now thats the 'wow' i need for my science project!