Sensors, Vol. 20, Pages 6021: Characteristics and Performances of a Nanostructured Material for Passive Samplers of Gaseous Hg

Sensors, Vol. 20, Pages 6021: Characteristics and Performances of a Nanostructured Material for Passive Samplers of Gaseous Hg Sensors doi: 10.3390/s20216021 Authors: Joshua Avossa Fabrizio De Cesare Paolo Papa Emiliano Zampetti Andrea Bearzotti Marcello Marelli Nicola Pirrone Antonella Macagnano Passive air samplers (PASs) have been used for mapping gaseous mercury concentration in extensive areas. In this work, an easy-to-use and -prepare gold nanoparticle (NP)-based PAS has been investigated. The PAS is constituted of a microfibrous quartz disk filter impregnated of gold NP photo-growth on TiO2 NPs (Au@TiO2) and used as gaseous mercury adsorbing material. The disk was housed in a cylinder glass container and subjected to an axial diffusive sampling. The adsorbed mercury was measured by thermal desorption using a Tekran® instrument. Different amounts of Au@TiO2 (ranging between 4.0 and 4.0 × 10−3 mg) were deposited by drop-casting onto the fibrous substrate and assessed for about 1 year of deployment in outdoor environment with a mercury concentration mean of about 1.24 ± 0.32 ng/m3 in order to optimize the adsorbing layer. PASs showed a linear relation of the adsorbed mercury as a function of time with a rate of 18.5 ± 0.4 pg/day (≈1.5% of the gaseous concentration per day). However, only the PAS with 4 mg of Au@TiO2, provided with a surface density of about 3.26 &...
Source: Sensors - Category: Biotechnology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research