Modeling the Atmospheric Chemistry of Mercury

Aqueous Photochemistry of Mercury with Organic Acids

“…The typical concentration of Hg(II) in precipitation in polluted areas is found to range from 5 to 50 ng/l (2.5 × 10 -11 ~ 2.5 × 10 -10 M). 38 Consider an atmospheric water in which the Hg(II) concentration is 1.0 × 10 -10 M. Since the existence of the hydroperoxyl radicals is common with a concentration of ca. 10 -8 M, 39 the rate of Hg(II) reduction due to the hydroperoxyl radical pathways ranges from 1.7 × 10 -14 to 1.1 × 10 -14 M/s based on the determined rate constants in this work.…”

Geochemical legacies and the future health of cities: A tale of two neurotoxins in urban soils

“…Mercury can react easily with Cl -and sulfite groups, which are both common constituents of flue gas; therefore, it may oxidize and reduce several times in the stacks depending on height of the stack and concentration of those anions (Chu and Porcella, 1995). Elemental Hg (Hg 0 ), reactive gaseous Hg (RGM), and particulate-bound Hg (Hg p ) are the most relevant species released from coal-fired power plant stacks and the heights of the stacks have an inverse relationship with dry deposition (Pleijel and Munthe, 1995;US EPA 1997). That is, the lower the stack height, the higher the rate of local deposition.…”

“…Atmospheric mercury transport, deposition, re-emission, and methylation Hg 0 is the most common form of Hg in the atmosphere and usually has the longest mean residence time, approximately one year (Lindberg et al, 2007;US EPA, 1997;Pleijel and Munthe, 1995). RGM and Hg p have a mean residence time ranging from only a few hours to several months.…”

“…Both of these species are influenced in the atmosphere by sulfite and ozone (Lamborg et al, 1995;Lindberg et al, 2007;Slemr et al, 2011). RGM will readily complex with sulfur, chloride, and hydroxyl ligands; however, Hg has a particular affinity for sulfites (Pleijel and Munthe, 1995;Lamborg et al, 1995). Mercury can also complex with soot particles and fine particulates in the air to form Hg p , a common form emitted from coal-fired power plants and other combustion sources (US EPA, 1997;Pleijel and Munthe, 1995;Wängberg et al, 2008).…”

“…RGM and Hg p can be scavenged from the air by rainout and washout with precipitation and the resulting wet deposition will most likely occur locally (US EPA, 1997;Pleijel and Munthe, 1995;Lindberg et al, 2007, Driscoll et al, 2013. Generally, wet and dry deposition rates are influenced by the Hg amount present in the atmosphere.…”