Mercury Nanodrops and Nanocrystals

Abstract

Directed synthesis of stable mercury nanodrops and nanocrystals and exploration of their characteristic attributes are outstanding challenges, with the potential to unveil a new family of nanomaterials. The unique status of mercury among the chemical elements and metals, in particular, underlines the significance and perhaps explains the absence of any reports, so far, of such studies. A facile and simple protocol is developed for the generation of stable mercury nanodrops inside a polymer thin film, exploiting the in situ chemical reduction of precursor ions by the polymer itself under mild thermal annealing. The films exhibit the localized surface plasmon resonance absorption predicted for nano-mercury. Nanocrystals formed by freezing the nanodrops are observed directly and characterized using cryo-transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction of the freestanding nanocomposite thin film. Size dependence of the melting temperature is established by monitoring the electron diffraction in a variable-temperature experiment. Melt−freeze cycling reveals significant hysteresis effects. The mercury−polymer nanocomposite thin film is found to exhibit visible photoluminescence.

Near- to Long-Wave-Infrared Mercury Chalcogenide Nanocrystals from Liquid Mercury

“…34 In the following, we propose a synthetic procedure where the mercury thiolate is prepared in situ from liquid mercury. We sonicate liquid Hg in DDT for several hours 35 and then obtain a mixture of mercury thiolate crystals and colloidal liquid Hg, 36 see Figure 2a and b and Figure S7.…”

‘Dip Catalysts’ Based on Polymer‐Metal Nanocomposite Thin Films: Combining Soft‐Chemical Fabrication with Efficient Application and Monitoring

“…The in situ protocol has been utilized to fabricate palladium nanowires (Figure c), as well as ultra‐small platinum nanoparticles embedded in PVA thin films;, the former provided a graphic illustration of a crystal‐to‐crystal transformation at the nanoscale. Unique materials like Hg nanodrops could be generated in situ in PVA thin films using the same protocol; the nanodrops could be frozen into nanocrystals in a cryo‐TEM and characterized by electron diffraction . Melt‐freeze cycles were used as a simple approach for evaluating the particle size ‐ melting point correlation.…”

Mercuration of apo-α-lactalbumin: binding of Hg2+followed by protein-mediated nanoparticle formation

“…These nanocrystals were found to have the ability to convert highly toxic Hg 2+ into the less toxic Hg 0 form using the redox ability of different residues, including the tyrosine present in the protein. A recent report in the literature describes the synthesis of mercury nanocrystals carried out under harsh conditions consisting of nitric acid plus a polyvinyl alcohol mixture of mercury nitrate heated at 60-110 C. 1 In contrast, the present method utilizes a simple and environmentally friendly synthesis of the mercury nanocrystals, wherein the protein acts as a reducing as well as capping agent, and thus detoxies mercury.…”

“…The development of techniques for easy and environmentally benign synthesis of stable mercury nanocrystals is currently a great challenge. 1 While dental amalgams that contain mercury are well known in the literature, the generation of nanostructured mercury requires a harsh method. 1,8 In order to understand the effect of mercuration on proteins, apo-a-lactalbumin (apo-a-LA) was chosen because of its small size and its exposed residues of Glu, Asp, His, and Tyr, and also because of the prior knowledge gathered through studies carried out with Pb 2+ , Mg 2+ , Zn 2+ , Cu 2+ and Al 3+ .…”

“…1 While dental amalgams that contain mercury are well known in the literature, the generation of nanostructured mercury requires a harsh method. 1,8 In order to understand the effect of mercuration on proteins, apo-a-lactalbumin (apo-a-LA) was chosen because of its small size and its exposed residues of Glu, Asp, His, and Tyr, and also because of the prior knowledge gathered through studies carried out with Pb 2+ , Mg 2+ , Zn 2+ , Cu 2+ and Al 3+ . [9][10][11] It has been previously demonstrated that the side chains of Glu, Asp, His, and Tyr residues present in Ab peptides and in proteins such as a-lactalbumin, human serum albumin, and b-lactoglobulin interact with various metal ions, resulting in aggregation and ber formation.…”