Mercury contamination from the gold mining and the burning processing of mercury-rich ores is one of the major environmental problems. Mercury can cause serious health problems because it easily passes through the skin, respiratory, and gastrointestinal tissues into the human body, where it will damage the central nervous and endocrine systems. The fluorescent silver nanocluster have been successfully synthesized and examined for potential application in detection and remediation of Hg2+ in aqueous solution. The prepared silver nanoclusters were with an average diameter of 1 nm. Hg2+ can be detected by using the spectroscopic properties of silver nanoclusters and the detection limit of Hg2+ was as low as 10 ppb. The concentration of Hg2+ ions can be decreased to less than 0.05 ppm. The Hg2+ remediation mechanism can be explained in terms of amalgamation process, which was demonstrated by XRD and EDX data. The results suggest that silver nanoclusters are potentially useful materials for simultaneously rapidly detecting and recovering of Hg2+ pollutants in aqueous solution.

Detection and recovery of Hg<sup>2+</sup> by fluorescent Ag nanocluster in aqueous solution

245th National Meeting (2013)

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Detection and recovery of Hg2+ by fluorescent Ag nanocluster in aqueous solution

Detection and recovery of Hg²⁺ by fluorescent Ag nanocluster in aqueous solution