Adsorption enhancement of elemental mercury onto sulphur-functionalized silica gel adsorbents

In this study, elemental mercury (EM) adsorbents were synthesized using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and 3-mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane as silica precursors. The synthesized silica gel (SG)-TEOS was further functionalized through impregnation with elemental sulphur and carbon disulphide (CS2). The SG adsorbents were then characterized by using scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infra-red spectrophotometer, nitrogen adsorption/desorption, and energy-dispersive X-ray diffractometer. The EM adsorption of the SG adsorbents was determined using fabricated fixed-bed adsorber. The EM adsorption results showed that the sulphur-functionalized SG adsorbents had a greater Hgo breakthrough adsorption capacity, confirming that the presence of sulphur in silica matrices can improve Hgo adsorption performance due to their high affinity towards mercury. The highest Hgo adsorption capacity was observed for SG-TEOS(CS2) (82.62 microg/g), which was approximately 2.9 times higher than SG-TEOS (28.47 microg/g). The rate of Hgo adsorption was observed higher for sulphur-impregnated adsorbents, and decreased with the increase in the bed temperatures.