Molecule of the month

Yellow crystalline mercurous nitrite was first reported by P C Rây¹ in 1896. In 1966, Allred et al reported that using Rây’s method, they had isolated the compound but that it turned into some ‘unidentified solid’ immediately. This resulted in a controversy that lasted four decades on whether it was possible to isolate mercury(I) nitrite or not. In 2011, A Chakravorty et al, on the 150th birth anniversary of Rây, delineated the synthesis as well as X-ray structural characterization of mercurous nitrite.