Low cost and renewable sulfur-polymers by inverse vulcanisation, and their potential for mercury capture

Parker, DJ ORCID: 0000-0002-0745-5919, Jones, HA, Petcher, S, Cervini, L, Griffin, JM, Akhtar, R ORCID: 0000-0002-7963-6874 and Hasell, T ORCID: 0000-0003-4736-0604 (2017) Low cost and renewable sulfur-polymers by inverse vulcanisation, and their potential for mercury capture JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, 5 (23). pp. 11682-11692. ISSN 2050-7488, 2050-7496

Text Sulfur polymers - JmatchemA_author-accepted-version-non-paginated.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (1MB)

Abstract

Sulfur is not only a highly abundant element, but also produced as a by-product of the petrochemicals industry. However, it has not been conventionally used to produce functional materials because polymeric sulfur is unstable, and decomposes back to its monomer. Recently, inverse vulcanisation has been used to produce stable polymeric materials with elemental sulfur as a major component. Here we report a series of alternative crosslinkers for inverse vulcanisation that are either low-cost industrial byproducts, or bio-derived renewables. These are shown to produce stable polymers with superior properties to previously reported materials. When made porous by the action of supercritical carbon dioxide or salt templating, these high sulfur polymers show excellent potential for mercury capture and filtration.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	crosscheck: This document is CrossCheck deposited related_data: Supplementary Information copyright_licence: The Royal Society of Chemistry has an exclusive publication licence for this journal history: Received 14 November 2016; Accepted 28 November 2016; Accepted Manuscript published 28 November 2016; Advance Article published 6 December 2016
Uncontrolled Keywords:	40 Engineering, 4016 Materials Engineering, 34 Chemical Sciences, 13 Climate Action, 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	04 Jan 2017 09:08
Last Modified:	23 May 2026 00:34
DOI:	10.1039/c6ta09862b
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3005049
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