Efficient Removal of Elemental Mercury from Coal-Fired Flue Gas in a Wide Temperature Range by Fe3O4 Attached to the CuSe Surface

The adsorbent technique is one of the common methods used to capture elemental mercury from industrial flue gases. In this paper, CuSe/Fe3O4 (CF) was constructed by the hydrothermal method, and the surface area of the adsorbent (CF-25) reached 138.7626 m2 g-1 when the mass ratio of Fe3O4 was 25 wt %, and its performance for mercury removal was also optimal. The diselenide ligand (Se22-) from CuSe and the oxygen functional group (OL) from Fe3O4 contributed to the immobilization of Hg0. The mercury removal efficiency of CF-25 could reach 92% on average at 40-300 degrees C, and the adsorption capacity of CF-25 for mercury at 240 degrees C was 56.0224 mg g-1. In the cycling experiments, CF-25 was able to absorb 92.7% of the mercury and possessed a high recovery rate. In addition, the adsorbent exhibited excellent sulfur resistance. The outstanding mercury removal performance, high recyclability, and excellent sulfur resistance make CF-25 a promising adsorbent.