In situ acid etching boosts mercury accommodation capacities of transition metal sulfides

Hailong Li, Jiaoqin Zheng, Wei Zheng, Hongxiao Zu, Hongmei Chen, Jianping Yang, Wenqi Qu, Lijian Leng, Yong Feng and Zequn Yang ()
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Hailong Li: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Jiaoqin Zheng: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Wei Zheng: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Hongxiao Zu: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Hongmei Chen: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Jianping Yang: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Wenqi Qu: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Lijian Leng: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University
Yong Feng: Environmental Research Institute, South China Normal University
Zequn Yang: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Transition Metal sulfides (TMSs) are effective sorbents for entrapment of highly polluting thiophiles such as elemental mercury (Hg0). However, the application of these sorbents for mercury removal is stymied by their low accommodation capacities. Among the transition metal sulfides, only CuS has demonstrated industrially relevant accommodation capacity. The rest of the transition metal sulfides have 100-fold lower capacities than CuS. In this work, we overcome these limitations and develop a simple and scalable process to enhance Hg0 accommodation capacities of TMSs. We achieve this by introducing structural motifs in TMSs by in situ etching. We demonstrate that in situ acid etching produces TMSs with defective surface and pore structure. These structural motifs promote Hg0 surface adsorption and diffusion across the entire TMSs architecture. The process is highly versatile and the in situ etched transition metal sulfides show over 100-fold enhancement in their Hg0 accommodation capacities. The generality and the scalability of the process provides a framework to develop TMSs for a broad range of applications.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37140-5

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