Prepare Magnesium

[victory71986]

Who know ? Why we can’t prepare Mg From MgO :x

[SpongeBob SquareChemist]

Originally Posted by victory71986

Who know ? Why we can’t prepare Mg From MgO :x

Short version - you can.

Longer version - Magnesium was first isolated in England by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808. Davy had built an enormous 600 plate battery with which he passed electricity through salts. In doing so, Davy discovered or isolated for the first time many alkali and alkali earth metals, such as potassium, sodium, barium, calcium and strontium. In magnesium's case, Davy mixed magnesium oxide to a paste with mercury sulfide. He made a depression in the paste and placed mercury metal there to act as an electrode. Platinum was used as a counter electrode. When electricity was passed through the paste, a magnesium-mercury amalgam formed at the mercury electrode. The mercury was then removed by heating to leave magnesium metal.

http://www.chemicool.com/elements/magnesium.html