Gaseous elemental mercury concentration in atmosphere at urban and remote sites in China

An investigation of gaseous elemental mercury concentration in atmosphere was conducted at Beijing and Guangzhou urban, Yangtze Delta regional sites and China Global Atmosphere Watch Baseline Observatory （CGAWBO） in Mt. Waliguan of remote continental area of China. High temporal resolved data were obtained using automated mercury analyzer RA-915^＋. Results showed that the overall hourly mean Hg^0 concentrations in Mt. Waliguan were 1.7±1.1 ng/m3 in summer and 0.6±0.08 ng/m^3 in winter. The concentration in Yangtze Delta regional site was 5.4±4.1 ng/m^3, which was much higher than those in Waliguan continental background area and also higher than that found in North America and Europe rural areas. In Beijing urban area the overall hourly mean Hg^0 concentrations were 8.3±3.6 ng/m^3 in winter, 6.5±5.2 ng/m^3 in spring, 4.9±3.3 ng/m^3 in summer, and 6.7±3.5 ng/m^3 in autumn, respectively, and the concentration was 13.5±7.1 ng/m^3 in Guangzhou site. The mean concentration reached the lowest value at 14：00 and the highest at 02：00 or 20：00 in all monitoring campaigns in Beijing and Guangzhou urban areas, which contrasted with the results measured in Yangtze Delta regional site and Mr. Waliguan. The features of concentration and diurnal variation of Hg^0 in Beijing and Guangzhou implied the importance of local anthropogenic sources in contributing to the high Hg^0 concentration in urban areas of China. Contrary seasonal variation patterns of Hg^0 concentration were found between urban and remote sites. In Beijing the highest Hg^0 concentration was in winter and the lowest in summer, while in Mt. Waliguan the Hg^0 concentration in summer was higher than that in winter. These indicated that different processes and factors controlled Hg^0 concentration in urban, regional and remote areas.

Hg^0 absorption in potassium persulfate solution

The aqueous phase oxidation of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) by potassium persulfate (KPS) catalyzed by Ag+ was investigated using a glass bubble column reactor. Concentration of gaseous mercury and potassium persulfate were measured by cold vapor atom absorption (CVAA) and ion chromatograph (IC), respectively. The effects of pH value, concentration of potassium persulfate and silver nitrate (SN), temperature, Hg0 concentration in the reactor inlet and tertiary butanol (TBA), free radical scavenger, on the removal efficiency of Hg0 were studied. The results showed that the removal efficiency of Hg0 increased with increasing concentration of potassium persulfate and silver nitrate, while temperature and TBA were negatively effective. Furthermore, the removal efficiency of Hg0 was much better in neutral solution than in both acidic and alkaline solution. But the influence of pH was almost eliminated by adding AgNO3. High Hg0 concentration has positive effect. The possible reaction mechanism of gaseous mercury was also discussed.

Mercury enrichment in Brassica napus in response to elevated atmospheric mercury concentrations

Mercury enrichment in response to elevated atmospheric mercury concentrations in the organs of rape （Brassica napus） was investigated using an open top chamber fumigation experiment and a soil mercury enriched cultivation experiment. Results indicate that the mercury concentration in leaves and stems showed a significant variation under different concentrations of mercury in atmospheric and soil experiments while the concentration of mercury in roots, seeds and seed coats showed no significant variation under different atmospheric mercury concentrations. Using the function relation established by the experiment, results for atmospheric mercury sources in -rape field biomass showed that atmospheric sources accounted for at least 81.81% of mercury in rape leaves and 32.29% of mercury in the stems. Therefore, mercury in the aboveground biomass predominantly derives from the absorption of atmospheric mercury.

100 years of high GEM concentration in the Central Italian Herbarium and Tropical Herbarium Studies Centre(Florence,Italy)

Up to 1980 s,the most used preservative for herbaria specimens was HgCl2,sublimating at ambient air conditions;ionic Hg then reduces to Hg0(gaseous elemental mercury,GEM)and diffuses throughout poor ventilated environments.High GEM levels may indeed persist for decades,representing a health hazard.In this study,we present new GEM data from the Central Italian Herbarium and Tropical Herbarium Studies Centre of the University of Florence(Italy).These herbaria host one of the largest collection of plants in the world.Here,HgCl2 was documented as plant preservative up to the 1920 s.GEM surveys were conducted in July 2013 and July and December 2017,to account for temporal and seasonal variations.Herbaria show GEM concentrations well above those of external locations,with peak levels within specimen storage cabinets,exceeding 50,000 ng/m3.GEM concentrations up to^7800 ng/m3 were observed where the most ancient collections are stored and no ventilation systems were active.On the contrary,lower GEM concentrations were observed at the first floor.Here,lower and more homogeneously distributed GEM concentrations were measured in 2017 than in 2013 since the air-conditioning system was updated in early2017.GEM concentrations were similar to other herbaria worldwide and lower than Italian permissible exposure limit of 20,000 ng/m3(8-hr working day).Our results indicate that after a century from the latest HgCl2 treatment GEM concentrations are still high,i.e.,the treatment itself is almost irreversible.Air conditioning and renewing is probably the less expensive and more effective method for GEM lowering.