A Polymerization-Cutting Strategy: Self-Protection Synthesis of Thiol-Based Nanoporous Adsorbents for Efficient Mercury Removal

Highly toxic heavy metal ions such as mercury ions (Hg²⁺) are a great threat to human life and the environment. Developing new strategies and materials to remove the toxic heavy metal ions has attracted more and more attentions. Herein a facile self-protection synthesis of thiol-based nanoporous adsorbents for efficient mercury removal via a polymerization-cutting strategy is reported. The direct free-radical polymerization of divinyl disulfide derivative and subsequently cutting off the disulfide linkage, without post-synthesis or modification, can give rise to an exceptionally high density of thiol chelating sites. Moreover, the resultant thiol-based nanoporous adsorbents (NAs-SH) exhibit a high saturation uptake capacity (1240 mg g⁻¹) and reused ability for mercury removal from water solution. The proposed polymerization-cutting strategy may provide an alternative and cost-effective method for the design and synthesis of various efficient nanoporous adsorbents at large scale in the future.