Can Gallium form amalgam-type alloys?

Question

Hi all,

I'm wondering if molten Ga (m.p. ca. 30 oC) would dissolve other metals,much like Hg does. And if so, which metals have great, or at least appreciable, solubilities in liquid Ga. I've the feeling that alkali metals will do, probably Al, Sc, and perhaps Y, La, and Lanthanides, too. What about the classical triad Cu, Ag, Au? Also, for Ge, Sn, and Pb.

I did some searches, but found about nothing interesting. Any direct info or links would be greatly appreciated.

thank you for your attention, Angelo

Pittsburgh Pete · Accepted Answer

Try searching Google under gallium amalgam. You will find this four year old British Dental Journal article about some commercial dental products:

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Amalgams for fillings are medical products which means that a search of Public Medline can find lots of abstracts to magazine articles. Go to the Entrez site at:

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and put in the key words gallium amalgam. There's even one review article titled Gamalgamation! Click on "Related Articles" for even more references.

Pittsburgh Pete

Mark Thorson · Answer

Look here.  Gallium indeed forms amalgams with aluminumand other metals.

Angelo · Answer

As said in my OP, I did, but found (a lot of) single cases, mainly concernig dentistry and failed to get a fully satisfying, coherent set of data in a chemistry oriented fashion. Perhaps it's my fault, for not bothering examine all the huge amount of refs. I'll retry ASAP.

Oh, very good, indeed!

Thanks Pete

Mark Thorson wrote [in a subsequent post]:

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Thanks Mark

Best regards, Angelo

Can Gallium form amalgam-type alloys?

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