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Water Air & Soil Pollution

, Volume 56, Issue 1, pp 507–519 | Cite as

The sulphur-mercury(II) system in natural waters

  • David Dyrssen
  • Margareta Wedborg
Article

Abstract

Sulphur is an essential element for aquatic biosystems, the life processes of which lead to the formation of low molecular weight S compounds in the water. The results of our calculations indicate a pronounced tendency for Hg(II) to form HgS (or HgOHSH) and Hg(SR)2 complexes in the presence of H2S and thiols. Likewise, McHg will form CH3HgSH and CH3HgSR complexes, but in this case the chloride complex will dominate at low concentrations of H2S and thiols. In acidic low salinity water, CH3HgCl is the dominant McHg species at the lowest concentration of sulphide/thiols (0.1 nM), whereas a hundredfold increase of the sulphide/thiol concentration, or an increase of the pH to neutral or slightly alkaline conditions, will result in a total dominance for CH3HgSH and CH3HgSR.

Keywords

Thiol Natural Water Stability Constant Chloride Complex H2Se 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1991

Authors and Affiliations

  • David Dyrssen
    • 1
  • Margareta Wedborg
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Analytical and Marine ChemistryUniversity of Göteborg and Chalmers University of TechnologyGöteborgSweden

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