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This week, an article submitted by the Prof. Ariya's research group to聽 has been identified as VIP (very important article). The journal article is titled:聽

Natural Kaolin: Sustainable Technology for the Instantaneous and Energy-Neutral Recycling of Anthropogenic Mercury Emissions

read more about it here:聽

础耻迟丑辞谤蝉:听

Dr. Mainak Ganguly聽, Yuanyuan Tao, Bryan Lee,聽Prof. Parisa A. Ariya

础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听

Kaolin, a natural and inexpensive clay mineral, is ubiquitous in soil, dirt, and airborne particles. Amongst four commonly available clay minerals, kaolin, as a result of its layered structure, is the most efficient natural gaseous Hg adsorbent to date (Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity聽Qm=574.08鈥呂糶鈥塯鈭�1聽and Freundlich聽Qm=756.49鈥呂糶鈥塯鈭�1). The Hg uptake proceeds by homogeneous monolayer and heterogeneous processes. Hg physisorption on kaolin occurs in the dark, yet the adsorption rate is enhanced upon irradiation. The effects of several metal complexes, salts, halides and solvents on the Hg uptake were examined. The addition of CuCl2聽particles leads to a significant enhancement of the Hg uptake capacity (>30鈥卼imes) within second timescales and without irradiation. The physisorption with kaolin is switched to chemisorption upon the addition of CuCl2聽to kaolin. This process is entirely reversible upon the addition of Zn/Sn granules at room temperature without any added energy. However, the investment of a small amount of renewable energy can speed up the process. This technology demonstrates the facile and efficient capture and recycling of elemental Hg0聽from air. A wide range of metal particles and diverse physicochemical processes, which include the microphysics of nucleation, are herein examined to explore the potential reaction mechanism by using a suite of complementary analytical techniques. These new mechanistic insights open a new era of energy鈥恘eutral environmental remediation based on natural soil/airborne particles.