The mercurous ion has a very limited reducing power, and for this reason there are no important qualitative tests based on this property.Fairly recently, however, some authors have studied the possibility of enhancing this reducing power in presence of thiocyanate ions which form a very stable complex with mercuric ions, [ttg (CNS)4] 2-. These studies were started by Bradbury and Edwards 1 who described a method for the direct titration of ferric ion. Later investigations along the same lines were made by Pugh 2 and Flaschka a. Belcher and West made a systematic study of the titration of ferric ion 4 and extended the method to the determination of cupric 5, mercurous 6 and other reducing and oxidising substances 7. Independently and simultaneously, F. BurrielMarti, in collaboration with the present author, studied a similar titration for copper s as well as for mercurous mercury 9, and more recently examined the reducing properties of mercury in presence of thiocyanate and cyanide 16.So far, no qualitative work has been done which utilises this enhanced reducing property and it seemed to the present author that several interesting applications might be possible.The reducing properties of ~he mercurous-thiocyanate system can be applied to several redox reactions, although the ferrous-ferric system seemed to be the one most likely to yield useful results.
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