As the darling of jewelry industry, cinnabar has been favored by people for its bright China red and powerful efficacy.

But have you ever thought that what you bought may not be cinnabar, but plastic painted with impurities, which really happened to me, and some cinnabar was mixed with unknown materials, and it was the same color as the soil after being broken. So how can cinnabar distinguish between true and false? We can judge from the following aspects.

Wrap it in tin foil and heat it.

You can wrap a certain amount of cinnabar in tin foil and heat it. The color changed from brown to black, and there was sonic boom. After liquefaction, it will appear gelatinous and foam repeatedly. It won't be ashed after burning for a long time, but it will leave honeycomb marks after cooling. But after heating in this way, there is no change except that the color will turn black.

White paper heating

Put cinnabar on white paper, and then heat it under white paper, its color will change from bright red to black, and once it leaves the flame, it will return to its original color. Moreover, the white paper will not be dyed, and the color will not be restored if it leaves the flame, and the white paper will be dyed light red. This is a very intuitive identification method, which can help us easily identify whether cinnabar belongs to high-quality varieties. Everyone must pay attention to this situation.

Pick up matches and burn them.

You can use some matchsticks to pick some cinnabar powder and light it. You can see some bright and tiny mercury beads on the burnt matchsticks. However, if it is fake cinnabar, you won't see this phenomenon. This is a better method, but this method can only be used after we buy it. Therefore, I suggest that you might as well buy a small amount for identification first.

Tubular heating

Take some cinnabar and heat it in a sealed test tube, and you will find mercury beads or mercury mirrors on the tube wall. However, after heating, the fake cinnabar will appear reddish on the tube wall, and the color of small particles will turn silver gray.

Put it in the water

You can put some cinnabar in a beaker filled with clear water, shake it well, and then let it stand for a while. Water will not be dyed, but the color of sediment is dark red. However, the cinnabar at home will turn the color of water into light red, the sediment will appear silver gray, and some will have a small amount of dark red. The above are the methods that we should pay attention to when distinguishing cinnabar. This method is especially effective for me to distinguish between true and false. Use a little when choosing cinnabar.