The 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.
