Aluminum amalgam preparation

Claim 1

A method of preparing an aluminum amalgam comprising passing vapors of mercury through a bed of aluminum particles thereby contacting the mercury vapors with the particles contained in the bed, discontinuing the passage of the mercury through the bed after the particles have been thoroughly wetted, removing excess droplets of mercury from the bed by contacting the bed of particles with an inert liquid devoid of elemental oxygen to thereby remove excess mercury from the bed of particles and recovering from the bed aluminum containing mercury particles free of droplets of mercury.

Claim 2

A method of preparing aluminum amalgam comprising establishing a bed of aluminum particles of predetermined size, passing vapors of mercury through said bed of aluminum particles for a period of time sufficient to contact the particles of aluminum contained in the bed with mercury vapors, continuing the passage of mercury vapors until condensation of mercury occurs in the reaction vessel, removing excess mercury from the aluminum particles contained in the bed by washing the particles with an inert liquid devoid of elemental oxygen and recovering aluminum amalgam particles from said bed after the washing step.

Claim 7

A method of preparing aluminum amalgam comprising passing vapors of mercury in contact with loosely packed aluminum particles to thereby provide contact of the vapors of mercury with the aluminum particles contained in the bed, discontinuing the passage of mercury through the bed after all aluminum particles have been substantially contacted therewith, contacting the resulting particles with an inerT organic liquid free of elemental oxygen consisting of the member of the group consisting of benzene, hexane, methanol, ethanol, propanol, toluene and mixtures thereof to remove excess mercury from the aluminum amalgam particles contained therein and recovering after said contact the aluminum amalgam particles containing no free mercury droplets.