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Colour-Change Polymer Offers Sustainable Solution to Mercury Contamination

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday October 20 2015, @02:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-it-work-on-fish dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

a team of chemists, lead by Dr Justin Chalker at Flinders University in South Australia, has developed a new material to permanently remove mercury from soil and water.

It's called Sulfur-Limonene Polysulfide, or SLP for short.

"SLP is a polymer that looks like red rubber, and is made quite cheaply from industrial by-products," said Dr Chalker. "We can make it into any shape we want."

As its full name suggests, SLP is manufactured from sulfur – a by-product of the crude oil industry – and limonene, which is found in orange peel and an unused waste material from the citrus industry. Both components are readily and cheaply available, making SLP a highly sustainable product.

"To make the SLP polymer, we melt the sulfur, and add limonene to it and then can coat devices or make it into any shape we like," said Dr Chalker.

By lining storage containers with SLP, Dr Chalker and his colleagues have successfully removed mercury from river and pond water, and soil.

The material can transform water from toxic to nearly drinkable, with concentrations of mercury reduced a thousand fold, from several parts per million down to only several parts per billion.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday October 20 2015, @03:16PM

    by VLM (445) on Tuesday October 20 2015, @03:16PM (#252329)

    There is no such thing as permanent in chemistry. If its a polymer, UV in sunlight will break it down. If its a hydrocarbon, it probably burns pretty well. Eventually the mercury is coming back out, and in high concentration. May as well do it intentionally at a refinery to recycle the Hg.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 20 2015, @04:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 20 2015, @04:25PM (#252354)

    > If its a polymer, UV in sunlight will break it down.

    So don't store it in sunlight, now it is permanent.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Tuesday October 20 2015, @06:53PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 20 2015, @06:53PM (#252417) Journal

      Maybe. If you keep it dry or sterile. But I wouldn't put it past some bacterium to decide the stuff was yummy. and release the mercury in an available form.

      OTOH, if this is a new synthetic (not previously see in nature) then it might take awhile before that happens. The various plastic eaters are just starting to appear. But that's a lot different from permanent.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday October 20 2015, @05:01PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 20 2015, @05:01PM (#252375) Journal
    It's worth noting here that there's a lot of mercury already in the crust which we have nothing to do with. The reason it is there rather than in our livers is because while it can't be permanently stored anywhere, it can spend the majority of its lifespan sequestered away from biological organisms. Same goes for radioactive materials BTW.