SGER: Regenerable polymer-supported sorbent for aqueous mercury removal

这项研究的目标是开发一种基于具有笼状结构的聚合物支撑的分子捕捉器的水中汞去除的新方法，该笼型结构对汞具有高度的选择性并且也容易再生。由于这两个特点，预计拟议的方法将具有成本效益。现有的通过络合剂与汞结合的方法是基于软配体，这些软配体的结构中通常包含氮原子。然而，铜与胺形成的络合物比汞更稳定，这导致了这种络合剂对汞的去除效率较低。在这项拟议的研究中，一个由化学家和环境工程师组成的跨学科团队将合成聚合物支持的分子陷阱。他们还将测试基于笼基前体的聚合物材料可以被开发用于水中汞去除的假设。这一建议符合SGER项目的标准，因为它的想法新颖和创新，项目满足高风险-高回报标准。

0604368TarabaraThe objective of this research is to develop a new method of aqueous mercury removal based on polymer-supported molecular traps with a cage structure that are highly selective for mercury and also easily regenerable. The proposed method is expected to be cost-effective because of these two characteristics. Existing methods of mercury binding by complexing agents are based on soft ligands that typically include nitrogen atoms in their structures. However, copper forms much more stable complexes with amines than mercury, and this results in poor efficiency of mercury removal by such complexing agents. In the proposed research, an interdisciplinary team of chemists and environmental engineers will synthesize polymer-supported molecular traps. They also will test the hypothesis that polymeric materials based on cage-based precursors can be developed for aqueous mercury removal. This proposal fits the criteria for the SGER program in that it the idea is novel and innovative and the project satisfies the high risk-high reward criterion.