Answer:
We report an unusual case of mercury vapor poisoning from using a heated tobacco product. The suspect had added grains of mercury into 20 cigarettes in a pack. When a 36-year-old Japanese man inserted one of these cigarettes into the battery powered holder, it was heated to a temperature of 350 °C, and he inhaled vaporized mercury. After using 14 of the cigarettes over 16 h, he noticed he had flu-like symptoms so he visited the hospital. Although no physical abnormalities were revealed, 99 μg/L of mercury was detected in his serum sample. His general condition improved gradually and his whole blood mercury level had decreased to 38 μg/L 5 days later. When the remaining six cigarettes in the pack were examined, many metallic grains weighing a total of 1.57 g were observed. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry confirmed the grains as elemental mercury. Accordingly, the victim was diagnosed with mercury poisoning. Because the mercury was incorporated into cigarettes, an unusual and novel intoxication occurred through the heating of the tobacco product. Both medical and forensic scientific examination confirmed this event as attempted murder.
Explanation:
Answer:
pH value of a solution depends on the concentration of hydrogen ions
(pH = -log[H+(aq)].
Hydrochloric acid is a strong acid, while ethanoic acid is a weak acid. Strong acids ionize completely in water (to give ions which includes H+(aq)), while weak acids only ionize partially in water.
Therefore, even if both hydrochloric acid and ethanoic acid are monobasic acids (each molecule can ionize completely to give 1 hydrogen ion), since hydrochloric acid ionizes completely in water and ethanoic acid does not ionize completely, the concentration of hydrogen ions in hydrochloric acid is higher than that of ethanoic acid, leading to a lower pH value for hydrochloric acid, while higher for ethanoic acid.
HCl is a polar molecule with the hydrogen part being partial positive while the chlorine end being partial negative. This is because hydrogen has an electronegativity of 2.1, and chlorine has an electronegativity of 3.0. This means that chlorine attracted most of the electron cloud of molecule hence is the negative dipole, The dipole moment of HCl is 1.08 D (debyes). A Debye is equal to 3.34 x 10-30 coulomb-meters (C-m). The charge of each molecule is o.176+ for H and 0.176- for the Cl
