Silver nanoparticles trap mercury
Thursday, February 16, 2012 - 12:01
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who thinks amalgams are limited to tooth fillings is missing something: Amalgams, which are alloys of mercury and other metals, have been used for over 2500 years in the production of jewelry and for the extraction of metals like silver and gold in mining operations. These days, the inverse process is of greater interest: the removal of mercury from wastewater by amalgamation with precious metals in the form of nanoparticles. Kseniia Katok and colleagues have now reported new insights in the journal Angewandte Chemie: if the diameter of silver nanoparticles is made even smaller, significantly more mercury can be extracted relative to the amount of silver used.