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Possible Exchange Reactions during Analysis of Gaseous Oxidized Mercury

ORAL

Abstract

Gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) is formed in the atmosphere upon photochemical oxidation of gaseous elemental mercury. Due to low atmospheric concentration of GOM, its chemical analysis requires pre-concentration on various substrates, such as KCl or various membranes. We hypothesize that GOM species collected on those substrates can engage in exchange reactions with the substrate, each other, or with other co-adsorbed atmospheric chemicals, changing the chemical composition of GOM and potentially leading to analysis artifacts. Here we investigated the exchange reactions of several GOM surrogates (HgCl$_{\mathrm{2}}$, HgBr$_{\mathrm{2}}$, HgI$_{\mathrm{2}})$ in aqueous solutions and on surfaces. Exchange reaction products were analyzed using ion drift - chemical ionization mass spectrometry (ID-CIMS) and electrospray ionization - mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). We observed volatile HgBrCl, HgBrI, HgClI as a result of exchange in aqueous solutions. Our preliminary results also indicate that the exchange reactions can occur on surfaces, producing products that are not related to original GOM, but can be volatilized by thermal evaporation.

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Authors

  • Na Mao

    Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology

  • Anuradha Gupta

    New Jersey Inst of Tech, Pennsylvania State University, Bard College, University of Mississippi, Drexel Univ, Collaborator, University of Dayton, Morgan State University, Louisiana State University, University of Geneva, Instituto Superior Tecnico - Lisboa, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rutgers University, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Chemical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany, Department of Physics and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 3, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland, The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, 1010 Auckland, New Zealand, Department of Physics, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, Space Research Institute of RAS, Moscow, Russia, Georgetown University, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, University of Delaware, Brookhaven National Laboratory, San Diego State University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA, University of Washington

  • Alexei Khalizov

    New Jersey Inst of Tech, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT