Mercury goes Solid at room temperature at nanoscale and a potential Hg waste storage

Abstract

While room temperature bulk mercury is liquid, it is solid in its nano-configuration (Ønano-Hg ≤ 2.5 nm). Conjugating the nano-scale size effect and the Laplace driven surface excess pressure, Hg nanoparticles of Ønano-Hg ≤ 2.4 nm embedded in a 2-D turbostratic Boron Nitride (BN) host matrix exhibited a net crystallization at room temperature via the experimentally observed (101) and (003) diffraction Bragg peaks of the solid Hg rhombohedral α-phase. The observed crystallization is correlated to a surface atomic ordering of 7 to 8 reticular atomic plans of the rhombohedral α-phase. Such a novelty of size effect on phase transition phenomena in Hg is conjugated to a potential Hg waste storage technology. Considering the vapor pressure of bulk Hg, Room Temperature (RT) Solid nano-Hg confinement could represent a potential green approach of Hg waste storage derived from modern halogen efficient light technology.

Characteristic nano thicknesses of pure heptane and hexadecane liquids: the boundary between the microscopic and macroscopic liquid worlds

“…As the size changes, in addition to the change in appearance, more complex properties such as ionic conductance [7,8], phonon signal [9], optical response [10] also changes. Kana et al [11] found that Hg nanoparticles with its size ≤ 2.4 nm exhibited a net crystallization at room temperature as it was embedded in a 2-D turbostratic boron nitride host matrix. Bonaccurso and Butt [12] studied experimentally the evaporation of water drops with radii ∼20 µm by depositing them onto atomic force microscope cantilevers, and found that during the last stage the evaporation process is slowed and a few nanometers thin layer of water remains on the surface for t ≫ 0.1 s. Similar nano-level phenomena related to the size of liquids have also been reported.…”