Mercury pollution threatens the environment and human health across the globe. This neurotoxic substance is encountered in artisanal gold mining, coal combustion, oil and gas refining, waste incineration, chloralkali plant operation, metallurgy, and areas of agriculture in which mercury‐rich fungicides are used. Thousands of tonnes of mercury are emitted annually through these activities. With the Minamata Convention on Mercury entering force this year, increasing regulation of mercury pollution is imminent. It is therefore critical to provide inexpensive and scalable mercury sorbents. The research herein addresses this need by introducing low‐cost mercury sorbents made solely from sulfur and unsaturated cooking oils. A porous version of the polymer was prepared by simply synthesising the polymer in the presence of a sodium chloride porogen. The resulting material is a rubber that captures liquid mercury metal, mercury vapour, inorganic mercury bound to organic matter, and highly toxic alkylmercury compounds. Mercury removal from air, water and soil was demonstrated. Because sulfur is a by‐product of petroleum refining and spent cooking oils from the food industry are suitable starting materials, these mercury‐capturing polymers can be synthesised entirely from waste and supplied on multi‐kilogram scales. This study is therefore an advance in waste valorisation and environmental chemistry.
The fluorescence excitation spectrum of the S1–S0(1B2–1A1) transition in jet-cooled toluene has been measured up to 2000 cm−1 above the origin band. Dispersed fluorescence spectra of the major features have been recorded and used to assign the levels observed in excitation. Collisional energy transfer experiments have been used to confirm assignments for some of the lower lying S1 fundamentals that were not accessible via direct optical pumping. The number of known S1 fundamentals has been extended to 13. The dispersed fluorescence spectra reveal the onset of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) at low S1 vibrational energies. Fluorescence lifetimes of all of the major bands observed in the excitation spectrum have been measured. The lifetimes decrease from 86 ns for 00 to 48 ns at an S1 vibrational energy of 1900 cm−1. To alleviate the confusion that exists over the mode numbering in toluene a new scheme is proposed which obviates this problem. This system is similar to that used for other substituted aromatics and should rationalize future work.
Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic environments. Inexpensive and sustainable sorbents are needed to mitigate the ecological harm of this pollution. To address this need, this study features a low‐density polysulfide polymer that is prepared by the direct reaction of sulfur and used cooking oils. Because both sulfur and cooking oils are hydrophobic, the polymer has an affinity for hydrocarbons such as crude oil and diesel fuel and can rapidly remove them from seawater. Through simple mechanical compression, the oil can be recovered and the polymer can be reused in oil spill remediation. The polysulfide is unique because it is prepared entirely from repurposed waste: sulfur is a by‐product of the petroleum industry and used cooking oil can be used as a comonomer. In this way, sulfur waste from the oil industry is used to make an effective sorbent for combatting pollution from that same sector.
A controlled-release fertiliser was prepared by the inverse vulcanisation of canola oil in the presence of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium nutrients.
Inverse vulcanization provides dynamic and responsive materials made from elemental sulfur and unsaturated cross-linkers. These polymers have been used in av ariety of applicationss uch as energy storage, infrared optics, repairable materials, environmental remediation, and precision fertilizers. In spite of thesea dvances, there is an eed for methods to recycle and reprocess these polymers. In this study,p olymers prepared by inverse vulcanization are shown to undergo reactive compression molding. In this process, the reactive interfaces of sulfur polymers are brought into contact by mechanicalc ompression.U pon heating these molds at relatively low temperatures (% 100 8C), chemical bonding occurs at the polymer interfaces by SÀSm etathesis. This method of processing is distinct from previouss tudies on inverse vulcanization because the polymers examined in this study do not form al iquid phase when heated. Neither compression nor heatinga lone was sufficient to mold these polymers into new architectures, so this is an ew concept in the manipulation of sulfur polymers. Additionally,h igh-level ab initio calculations revealed that the weakest SÀSb ond in organic polysulfides decreases linearly in strength from as ulfur rank of 2t o4 ,b ut then remains constant at about 100kJmol À1 for highers ulfur rank. This is criticali nformation in engineering these polymers for SÀSm etathesis. Guidedb yt his insight, polymer repair,r ecycling, and repurposingi nto new composites was demonstrated.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.