Investigations of photochemical transformations of aqueous mercury: implications for water effluent treatment technologies.

Photochemical transformations of mercury were studied to determine its potential as a treatment mechanism to reduce mercury laden waters to trace concentrations. In this study, aqueous solutions of mercury nitrate in deionized water were exposed to UV irradiation and a gas purge. The impacts of purge gas (including rate and bubble size), UV irradiation wavelength, initial mercury concentration and time on mercury removal have been studied.