Mercury Nano-Trap for Effective and Efficient Removal of Mercury(II) from Aqueous Solution
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-20-2014
Keywords
chelating agents, decontamination, drinking water, humans, mercury, nanostructures, polymers, solutions, water pollutants, chemical, water purification
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6537
Abstract
Highly effective and highly efficient decontamination of mercury from aqueous media remains a serious task for public health and ecosystem protection. Here we report that this task can be addressed by creating a mercury 'nano-trap' as illustrated by functionalizing a high surface area and robust porous organic polymer with a high density of strong mercury chelating groups. The resultant porous organic polymer-based mercury 'nano-trap' exhibits a record-high saturation mercury uptake capacity of over 1,000 mg g(-1), and can effectively reduce the mercury(II) concentration from 10 p.p.m. to the extremely low level of smaller than 0.4 p.p.b. well below the acceptable limits in drinking water standards (2 p.p.b.), and can also efficiently remove >99.9% mercury(II) within a few minutes. Our work therefore presents a new benchmark for mercury adsorbent materials and provides a new perspective for removing mercury(II) and also other heavy metal ions from contaminated water for environmental remediation.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Nature Communications, v. 5, art. 5537
Scholar Commons Citation
Li, Baiyan; Zhang, Yiming; Ma, Dingxuan; Shi, Zhan; and Ma, Shengqian, "Mercury Nano-Trap for Effective and Efficient Removal of Mercury(II) from Aqueous Solution" (2014). Chemistry Faculty Publications. 7.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/chm_facpub/7
