Computational Chemistry-Based Evaluation of Metal Salts and Metal Oxides for Application in Mercury-Capture Technologies

Abstract

Anthropogenic mercury emission to the atmosphere adversely affects the environment, wildlife, and human health. Accordingly, the design and implementation of improved mercury-capture technologies have received increased attention. We present a computational chemistry-based screening study to guide the development of mercury-capture materials. We use density functional theory (DFT) to probe the efficacy of metal salts and metal oxides (NaCl, NaBr, KCl, KBr, CaCl2, CaBr2, NaNO3, and MgO) toward mercury capture and their ability to be regenerated for continued use. We focus on three primary sources of mercury emission as elemental gaseous mercury (Hg(0)) or oxidized gaseous mercury species (Hg­(II); HgCl2 or HgBr2): (i) Hg(0) emission from artisanal Au production; (ii) Hg­(II)/Hg(0) emission from inlet/outlet streams for flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) operation; and (iii) Hg(0) and Hg­(II) emission from cement production. Our results suggest that CaCl2 and CaBr2 are good candidates for capturing Hg(0) in artisanal Au production. For FGD operation, KBr, MgO, CaCl2, and CaBr2 are good candidates for capturing HgCl2 and HgBr2, while CaBr2 is the only studied material that can capture Hg(0) from the outlet FGD stream. For cement production, CaBr2 is the only material of those studied that can capture Hg(0), HgCl2, and HgBr2. Our DFT results can accelerate the development of cheap and regenerable mercury-capture materials, as well as better prevent the release of mercury to the environment.

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