Question

What is the chemical formula of Cinnabar?

Answer 1

Hint: Firstly,let us know about cinnabar. It is a naturally occurring hydrothermal mineral to extract mercury. Its chemical constituents include mercury and sulphur. The metal is obtained from it by reducing its oxides by heating it. Because of one of its toxic properties of the vapours released during heating ,its usage has been discontinued by the people .

Complete answer:
By now ,we have got an idea about what cinnabar actually is and as I have mentioned its chemical constituents,you can derive its formula easily. It is chemically called Mercury sulphide and represented as HgS .It is the primary and one of the most important minerals of mercury. It has been extracted for its attractive bright red colour which is known for its usage in ornaments for many years and was also used as a pigment.The reason why its usage has been stopped is that in order to extract mercury from its ore,we need to heat it to reduce their oxides to metal that releases mercury in vapour form and later it is condensed to get mercury. The vapours released during the heating process are toxic and should not be inhaled.Most of the mercury used in the world is obtained from this ore. The chemical formula is HgS

Note:
The method used for the mercury extraction is froth floatation method which involves concentration of the ore and roasting and then distillation. When heat is applied, the oxygen present in the air gets combined with the sulphur and the metal is extracted.The impurities present in it can be separated by a refining process.