Further insights on Hg speciation in Hg-contaminated botanical specimens

Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) was widely used to prevent degradation of the vegetal samples [1]. Over time, HgCl2 decomposes to metallic Hg (Hg0), which readily vaporizes, becoming a serious occupational health hazard for the workers and visitors at natural collections worldwide [2-5]. Remediation strategies able to combine mitigation of the potential Hg exposure with preservation of the samples’ integrity are necessary. The proposed experiment is a continuation of HG-229 that was aimed at investigating the Hg speciation in Hg-contaminated botanical samples from the collections of the Erbario Centrale Italiano (ECI; University of Firenze, Italy) by High Resolution X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy at the Hg LIII-edge.

氯化汞（Mercuric chloride, HgCl₂）曾被广泛用于防止植物标本降解[1]。随着时间推移，氯化汞会分解为金属汞（metallic Hg, Hg⁰），后者极易挥发，进而对全球各地自然馆藏机构的工作人员与访客构成严重的职业健康危害[2-5]。因此，亟需制定可兼顾降低潜在汞暴露风险与维持标本完整性的修复策略。本实验系HG-229研究的延续，此前HG-229旨在借助汞LⅢ边的高分辨率X射线吸收近边光谱（High Resolution X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy），对意大利中央植物标本馆（Erbario Centrale Italiano, ECI；意大利佛罗伦萨大学）馆藏的汞污染植物标本中的汞形态进行分析。