Mercury extraction by ionic liquids: temperature and alkyl chain length effect

The preliminary results described here show the complete transfer of Hg(II) ions, in the absence of a chelating agent in 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquids; the lag time required to gain the quantitative metal ion partition turned out to be strongly dependent both on alkyl chain length on the imidazolium ring and on the working temperature.