University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2007 THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL CHELATES FOR THE PRECIPITATION OF MERCURY Aaron Robert Hutchison University of Kentucky, ahutchinson@cedarville.edu Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you Recommended Citation Hutchison, Aaron Robert, "THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL CHELATES FOR THE PRECIPITATION OF MERCURY" (2007) University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations 519 https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/519 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge For more information, please contact UKnowledge@lsv.uky.edu ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Aaron Robert Hutchison The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2007 THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL CHELATES FOR THE PRECIPITATION OF MERCURY _ ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Aaron Robert Hutchison Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr David Atwood, Associate Professor of Chemistry Lexington, Kentucky 2007 Copyright © Aaron Robert Hutchison 2007 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL CHELATES FOR THE PRECIPITATION OF MERCURY Mercury has been an element of great industrial importance since early times This wide utilization of the element has led to pervasive mercury contamination in the global environment Due to mercury’s high toxicity, this is a matter of great concern A number of methods, includ ing phytoremediation, filtration, and precipitation/chelation, have been investigated to remove mercury from the environment Unfortunately, these methods are not entirely satisfactory for the in-situ remediation of mercury from aqueous environments The hypothesis of this dissertation is that this can best be accomplished by the addition of a large and flexible sulfur-based chelate, that will bind mercury in a tetracoordinate and presumably tetrahedral environment, to mercury-contaminated waters Although this proved difficult due to the tendency of these ligands to decompose into smaller, sulfur-containing rings, the synthesis and characterization of such a chelate was achieved Several potential mercury-binding ligands were eventually synthesized significant amounts of mercury (91-100%) from the contaminated solutions, in one case lowering the mercury levels in the water to below the CVAF detection limits The resulting solids lost little (