Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 20 2015, @04:50PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday October 20 2015, @04:50PM (#252367) Homepage
    Why put this on the inner surface of a vessel rather than putting it everywhere on a sponge-like filter? Compare catalytic converters, etc., where you want as much surface interaction with the fluid passing over it as possible. Or if not sponge-like, how about powder-like, like an activated charcoal filter. Either would help minimise the size and mass of the material which will need to be carefully disposed with (as pointed out above, there's no such thing as permanantly bonding to the mercury).
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VanderDecken on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:23PM

    by VanderDecken (5216) on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:23PM (#252474)

    I would guess, for the purpose of the experiment, that the surface area of the given container could be obtained with much greater precision.

    --
    The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.