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.
Azide–alkyne cycloadditions in a Vortex Fluidic Device benefit from enhanced “on water” effects and copper jet feeds provide a convenient method of highly active catalyst delivery for flow chemistry.
With the Minamata Convention coming into force this year, there is a growing requirement for low‐cost sorbents for mercury pollution. Thus, a polysulfide was prepared by the co‐polymerization of sulfur and canola oil. As sulfur is a byproduct of the petroleum industry and used cooking oils are suitable starting materials, the resulting sorbent can be prepared entirely from waste. This high‐sulfur rubber was effective in trapping diverse forms of mercury including mercury metal, inorganic mercury, and organomercury compounds. More information can be found in the Full Paper by J. M. Chalker et al. on page 16219.
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