Facile synthesis of ternary Ag/AgBr-Ag(2)CO(3) hybrids with enhanced photocatalytic removal of elemental mercury driven by visible light.

A novel technique for photocatalytic removal of elemental mercury (Hg(0)) using visible-light-driven Ag/AgBr-Ag2CO3 hybrids was proposed. The ternary Ag/AgBr-Ag2CO3 hybrids were synthesized by a simple modified co-precipitation method and characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron spin resonance (ESR) techniques. The effects of AgBr content, fluorescent lamp (FSL) irradiation, solution temperature, SO2 and NO on Hg(0) removal were investigated in detail. Furthermore, a possible reaction mechanism for higher Hg(0) removal was proposed, and the simultaneous removal of Hg(0), SO2 and NO was studied. The results showed that a high efficiency of Hg(0) removal was obtained by using Ag/AgBr-Ag2CO3 hybrids under fluorescent lamp irradiation. The AgBr content, FSL irradiation, solution temperature, and SO2 all exhibited significant effects on Hg(0) removal, while NO had slight effect on Hg(0) removal. The addition of Ca(OH)2 demonstrated a little impact on Hg(0) removal and could significantly improve the SO2-resistance performance of Ag/AgBr(0.7)-Ag2CO3 hybrid. The characterization results exhibited that hydroxyl radical (OH), superoxide radical (O2(-)), hole (h(+)), and Br(0), were reactive species responsible for removing Hg(0), and the h(+) played a key role in Hg(0) removal.