Why mercury is liquid at room temperature?

Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid at normal temperatures and pressure, basically, it's because mercury is bad at sharing—electrons.

Most metal atoms readily share valence electrons with other atoms. The electrons in a mercury atom are bound more tightly than usual to the nucleus and they move so quickly that they exhibit relativistic effects.

Due to this weak bonding, mercury has low melting as well as boiling points. In other words, it requires only a small amount of heat or energy to break the binding between mercury atoms.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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