Mercury vapor sensor enhancement by nanostructured gold deposited on nickel surfaces using galvanic replacement reactions

Anthropogenic mercury emission is a serious global environmental problem because of its toxicity to humans, plants and wildlife. In order to control these emissions, accurate and reliable online continuous mercury monitoring systems (CMMs) are critical. Such systems can notify appropriate authorities or provide feedback signals to a process control system in time, thus making them an integral part of monitoring and controlling Hg emissions. We demonstrate how nanostructured gold can easily be deposited in small quantities on nickel electrode based QCMs using galvanic replacement (GR) reactions with the resultant surface having excellent Hg monitoring properties. The developed GR surfaces were observed to have higher sensitivity and selectivity in the presence of interfering gas species (NH3 and H2O), as well as to have similar to 80% higher mercury sorption capacity than the most efficient mercury sorbents reported to date. Investigations towards the Hg-sensing capabilities of the resultant Ni-Au surface based Hg sensors showed similar to 50% better sensitivity and detection limit over control Au films. Furthermore, the GR based QCMs were found to self-regenerate without changing the operating temperature of the sensor, undergoing Hg desorption with sensor recoveries of 93.7-99.3% following Hg exposure at an operating temperature of 90 degrees C. Surface depth profile analysis of the Ni-Au electrode surfaces showed that the high recovery rate of the sensors was primarily due to the Ni-Au structures, which unlike continuous Au thin-films more commonly used for Hg sensing applications, do not accumulate Hg at the sensitive-layer-substrate interface. Furthermore, the GR Ni-Au surfaces were found to be highly selective towards Hg vapor in the presence of NH3 and H2O interfering gas species which makes them potentially suitable for operating in harsh industrial effluent environments.