Copper selenide sensitized low-cost porous coordination polymers towards efficient capture trace gaseous elemental mercury

Abstract

Mercury, as a highly toxic atmospheric pollutant, poses serious hazards to global health and ecosystems. Developing low-cost sorbents with simultaneous fast capture rate and large uptake capacity to reduce elemental mercury (Hg0) emissions from industrial flue gas remains a formidable challenge. Herein, a rationally designed surfactant-assisted method was developed to construct copper selenide (CuSe) sensitized porous coordination polymers (CAU-10-H) as an efficient Hg remediator. The CuSe/CAU-10-H (0.8NC-CAU) exhibits superior near-100 % gaseous Hg0 removal efficiency over a wide temperature range (30–120 °C), implying its adaptability under different implementations. The equilibrium Hg0 adsorption capacity and initial Hg0 uptake rate of 0.8NC-CAU are 748.09 mg·g−1 and 63.21 μg·g−1·min−1, respectively, surpassing that of conventional sorbents and comparable to the benchmark materials. Furthermore, 0.8NC-CAU can adapt to harsh conditions with different flue gas impurities containing SO2, NO, and H2O to maintain high selectivity and stability, which is advantageous for real-world applications. Density functional theory (DFT) reveals that unsaturated selenium ligands as electron acceptors are critical affinity sites for facilitating Hg0 capture, resulting in stable HgSe species. More importantly, the facile preparation, prominent uptake capacity, and rapid capture rate of the 0.8NC-CAU material make it cost-effective. This work proposes a potential trap for Hg0 capture from industrial flue gas and facilitates the development of hybrid-functionalized materials for environmental remediation.