CHARGE OF MERCURY PARTICLES IN SOLUTIONS

STUDIES ON THE MEMBRANE POTENTIAL (I)

Abstract

In the present experiments it was observed that the deflections of falling course of particles of pure mercury, mercury containing small amount of zinc, silver or natrium, or mercury particles coated with oxide membrane, which were dropped into the electrolyte in which direct current was applied by two electrodes placed on both sides, and the charges of mercury particles in respective cases were examined. The followings are the results.
1) Particles of pure mercury deflect toward cathode and thier charges are positvie (this is already known well).
2) Particles of mercury containing small amount of zinc or silver or particles of mercury coated with oxide membrane do not deflect to either sides and thier charge is almost zero.
3) Particles containing natrium deflect toward anode and their charge is negative.
The fact that the particles coated with membrane have no charge will have important significance in electrophysiology.
The investigation of the charge of particle above mentioned can be applied to test charges of cells or protoplasmic substances in various solutions.