Exposure to mercury causes several diseases such as minamata, acrodynia, and Hunter-Russell syndrome. While reports deal with sensing of mercury are abundant, removal of mercury and subsequent beneficiation have not been seriously focused. Combining the above said steps in a single process-pipeline is attractive due to the fact that the existing processes, which are complex, costly and time consuming, can be avoided. As of now, a single and unified approach which can remove and utilize/beneficiate the mercury is not reported. Here we report a unified approach for sensing, removing and beneficiating Hg2+ from contaminated water. A mercury sensor based on Pyronin Y and denatured bovine serum albumin (BSA) is developed. Further, Hg2+ is removed from waste water in the form of aluminium amalgam. The aluminium amalgam obtained in the process after sensing can be taken out easily as it is precipitated in the solution. The obtained aluminium amalgam is incorporated as a reducing agent in organic reduction reaction such as: conversion of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol. The reduction process is easily monitored in UV-Vis spectrometer and further the product formation is confirmed by NMR. If the removal process is carried out in absence of the organic sensor complex, hydrolytic aluminium amalgam is produced in situ. This hydrolytic material undergoes spontaneous galvanic corrosion in water and produce hydrogen at a rate of 720 mL/min for 0.5 g Al salt. This in situ process bypasses the usual inertness of aluminium and its derivatives, caused by alumina layer on its surface. More importantly, the process overcomes the challenges related to material storage and transport issues to hydrogen technology. The hydrogen generation process reported here is controllable and scalable.

Sensing and removal of Hg2+ from contaminated water, and beneficiation of the gettered material in organic reduction reaction and hydrogen production

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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