Environmental Hg vapours adsorption and detection by using functionalized gold nanoparticles network
Adsorption and detection of environmental total gaseous mercury (TGM) was studied by using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on purpose functionalized with dithiol ligands, i.e. Biphenyl-4,4′-dithiol (BI) or p-Terphenyl-4,4′′-dithiol (TR), suitable for nanoparticles based network formation. AuNPs-BI and AuNPs-TR with size 6-8 nm were deposited onto quartz fibres and used as adsorbent materials for the detection of TGM, both indoor for adsorption studies, at defined concentrations (~4.5 ng m-3 Hg), and outdoor, at the vapour mercury concentration of the environmental countryside (~1.5 ng m-3 Hg).