Novel metal sulfide sorbents for elemental mercury capture in flue gas: A review

Mercury is largely emitted into the atmosphere during fossil fuel combustion or gasification, which causes a longterm contamination problem and poses great threats to human health. Currently, novel metal sulfides have been extensively investigated in capturing gaseous mercury because of their intense Hg0 affinities, large mercury uptakes, and distinguished tolerance to sulfur dioxide. This article overviews the recent progress on elemental mercury capture by diverse metal sulfides, i.e., CuS, ZnS, pyrite-phase metal sulfides, layered metal sulfides, Bi2S3 and In2S3. CuS and ZnS show good performances in a narrow temperature range due to the poor thermal stability and the compact crystal structure, respectively. Bi2S3 and In2S3 are also active in Hg0 adsorption, however, their performances are still unsatisfactory. Most pyrite-phase metal sulfides show moderate Hg0 capture abilities likely due to their compact crystal structures. Loading pyrites onto carriers or creating S vacancies in pyrite lattices seem to be feasible pathways to improve their performances. MoS2 and WS2 attained via molten salt method significantly outperform the ones obtained via hydrothermal method at elevated temperatures due to the production of ample sulfur variances and chemisorbed oxygen. Incorporating heteroatoms and expanding the interlayer distance by ions intercalation are effective routes to further strengthen their performances probably due to promoted electron transfer and increased accessibility of active sites, respectively.