Abstract
Mercury-containing wastes are hazardous due to the high toxicity and bio-accumulative effect of mercury. Examples of mercury-containing wastes include fluorescent light bulbs, thermostats, and thermometers. Recently, several aqueous-phase methods have been developed to extract mercury from mercury-containing wastes. However, the slow kinetics of mercury recovery limits the application of the aqueous-based technology. Here we designed a method of mercury recovery from a mercuric-thiosulfate solution assisted by ultraviolet photolysis. We evaluated the effect of initial pH, thiosulfate concentration and temperature on ultraviolet photolysis. The precipitation products were characterized by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results show a mercury recovery ratio of 87.94% after ultraviolet photolysis during 240 min. We conclude that mercury can be efficiently recovered from mercuric-thiosulfate complex solutions by ultraviolet photolysis.
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Acknowledgement
The authors thank Mr. Yan Fu for his help on the project. The project was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51374054).
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Wang, W., Han, C. & Xie, F. Efficient mercury recovery from mercuric-thiosulfate solutions by ultraviolet photolysis. Environ Chem Lett 16, 1049–1054 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-018-0716-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-018-0716-9