Cleaning Mercury with Cooking Oil

Cleaning Mercury with Cooking Oil
Aug-12-17
A low-cost polymer made of cooking oil could offer a sustainable method of cleaning mercury pollution from the air.

Mercury is commonly used in artisanal gold mining (which occurs mostly in poor nations), where it is left behind as a pollutant. The polymer, developed by a team at Flinders University, can be made inexpensively by blending used cooking oil and heated sulfur. After about thirty minutes of heat, the material solidifies to a rubber that can be further processed to create porous particles that mercury will bond to.

In tests, the material was able to harness mercury from the water and soil, as well as capture mercury vapor in the air.

Cleaning Mercury with Cooking Oil


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[NEWATLAS.COM]
[NEWS.FLINDERS.EDU]
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