Evidence for the Presence of Colloidal Metacinnabar in Mercury-DOM-Sulfide Systems as Determined by a Chromatographic-EXAFS Method

Mercury speciation and bioavailability is frequently thought to be controlled by the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and sulfide. However, the speciation of mercury in these systems is poorly understood due to the complex interactions of mercury, DOM, and sulfide. We have developed a combined chromatographic-extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy approach to determine the speciation of the hydrophobic fraction of mercury species in both sulfide-free and sulfide-rich (100 μM) experimental systems that also contain dissolved organic matter isolated from several locations, including the Florida Everglades. Chromatographic experiments were carried out with and without sulfide at varied mercury concentrations ranging from 0.1 nM to 1 μM in the presence of 10 mg L-1 DOM. The method consists of equilibrating the mercury-DOM with or without sulfide for 20 h (pH 6.5, I 0.1M) followed by chromatographic fractionation and concentration on a small column of C18 resin. Greater than 80% of the mercury in all solutions was found to be hydrophobic with respect to the resin when the mercury was interacting with the strong-binding DOM sites. The chromatographic behavior of solutions with and without sulfide was distinctly different. Sulfide-free mercury-DOM systems exhibited typical chromatographic behavior exemplified by resin saturation and subsequent breakthrough of mercury species. The sulfide-rich system exhibited very high resin affinity for almost all mercury species in solution and no apparent breakthrough, regardless of the ratio of mercury to DOM. Similar chromatographic experiments were carried out with and without sulfide at mercury concentrations as low as 250 nM and a DOM concentration of 50 mg L-1. EXAFS spectroscopy at the mercury LIII edge clearly showed spectra consistent with metacinnabar (HgS) as the dominant form of mercury adsorbed to the resin under sulfidic conditions despite the fact that no bulk precipitation was observed. EXAFS spectra from resins loaded with solutions of only mercury and DOM showed a distinctly different mercury binding environment that was not consistent with metacinnabar, although the local mercury binding environment for these sulfide-free solutions also contained sulfur as the nearest mercury neighbor.