[Noisebridge-discuss] First Post: Non-Hg Liquid Metal

Noah Balmer noahbalmer at gmail.com
Sat Jun 6 00:03:26 UTC 2009


Gallium is not known to be toxic, though there isn't a huge amount of data
on its toxicity.  It also has a much lower vapor pressure than mercury, even
at high temperatures (it doesn't evaporate readily), so you won't inhale
much.   I wouldn't eat it though.  Its physical properties are a lot like
aluminum.

There's an msds here <http://www.espi-metals.com/msds%27s/gallium.pdf>, from
which:

Health Hazard Information
Exposure Limits in Air: (TWA or suggested control figure):  There is no
specific TWA established for this product.
Acute Effects:
Inhalation:  No inhalation hazards of gallium have been identified.  Good
industrial hygiene practice suggests limiting exposure to all
repairable particulates.
Ingestion:  Evidence suggests low toxicity potential due to poor absorption
by the oral route.
Skin:  May cause irritation.  Some sources suggest gallium may cause
dermatitis, although patch testing humans with  metallic
gallium did not cause a positive reaction.
Eye:  May cause eye irritation.
Chronic Effects:  Intravenous administration to humans caused metallic
taste, skin rashes and bone marrow  depression as well as
anorexia, nausea and vomiting.  May cause damage to kidneys.
Carcinogenicity:  This product does not contain any ingredient designated by
IARP, NTP, ACGIH or OSHA as a probable human
carcinogen.
Medical Conditions Generally Aggravated by Overexposure:  No data found.


On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 4:54 PM, Andrew Cantino <cantino at gmail.com> wrote:

> Isn't gallium toxic like Hg?
>
> On Friday, June 5, 2009, Noah Balmer <noahbalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It is fairly uncommon for liquids to expand when they fuse.  I think
> bismuth does the same thing, and water does, as you mentioned, but don't
> know of anything else offhand.  In the case of water it has to do with a
> crystal structure that requires more space than the amorphous liquid does*.
> I don't know what the mechanism is with gallium.  It has conchoidal
> fracture, which is commonly seen in amorphous glassy solids, so I think it
> may be some other mechanism, but it may just be a very fine grained
> crystalline structure.
> >
> > -N
> >
> > *Water molecules are approximately L-shaped.  When they can flow feely
> around each other they can spoon and hook around each other in all sorts of
> ways that increase the density.  When they are frozen into a regular grid,
> the inside of the L is empty, so they are packed less densely.  Pressure on
> ice near the melting point can disrupt the crystal structure and re-liquify
> it, which is one of the reasons ice skates work so well.  A gallium skating
> pond might work too, though gallium loves alloying so much it might just
> dissolve the blades (it dissolves aluminum readily, don't bring it on a
> plane!) , and in its liquid form it's kind of sticky.
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 3:48 PM, d p chang <pchang at macrovision.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Noah Balmer <noahbalmer at gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> I'm surprised to see it stored in a glass vial in that image
> >> though, because it expands by a few percent when it solidifies, and
> >> will often break rigid containers.
> >
> > wow. i thought water was 'weird' that it expanded when it became a
> > solid. am i just mis-remembering something or is this actually common?
> >
> > \p
> > ---
> > I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I
> > am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
> >                 - Robert McCloskey
> >
> >
>
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