Chemical elements · Directory entry

Mercury

Element 80 · chemical symbol: Hg

These Vrulum profiles mention Mercury by name. Read each profile for its specific context; a mention alone does not establish composition, performance or use of the pure element.

For periodic-table data and other properties, consult the Royal Society of Chemistry periodic table.

Search materials profiles for Mercury

Commercial

Electric space propulsion

Electric space propulsion uses electrical power, usually from solar arrays, to accelerate a gas such as xenon out of a spacecraft. It uses far less propellant than chemical rockets for the same change in speed, but its thrust is very small, so it works over months or years.

Pilot and early commercial

Smart contact lenses

Smart contact lenses are soft lenses with sensors or micro-displays built in. One sensing lens, Sensimed's Triggerfish, has US marketing authorisation to help clinicians time eye pressure checks in glaucoma, but tear glucose sensing and display lenses have only been tested in small early studies and in animals.

Commercial

The electric motor

An electric motor turns electrical energy into rotary motion using magnetic force, a principle Michael Faraday demonstrated at the Royal Institution in 1821. From Thomas Davenport's battery-powered motor of 1837 and Nikola Tesla's alternating-current patents of 1888, it now powers electric vehicles and starter motors in the form of permanent-magnet and induction designs.