Chloride ions complexes with trace elements

While ranges of total concentration serve to set bounds for experimentally determining effects on marine populations, the actual species of metal ion available to the biological population is of importance. Sillen, in a classic paper, has computed the stable species of many metals in sea water21). He concluded, for example, that Hg+2, Cd+2, and Pb+2 exist primarily as chloride complexes. pH determines the availability of the hydroxide ion and thereby the solubility of metal hydroxides. Sillen assumed a pH of 8.1 0.2 as representative. Significant variations could occur, however, in estuarine waters. When concentrations of trace elements were compared with calculations of their solubility products and stability constants, the observed values were considerably less than the calculated values. The implication is that the heavy metals are not in equilibrium with solid phases of their salts, but that other processes, such as chelation and adsorption, control their concentration. 

Mercury represents a serious environmental risk, and the study of removal of mercury from wastewater has received considerable attention in recent years. Mercury concentration was usually reduced by deposition on a cathode with high surface area. Removal of mercury is studied using extended surface electrolysis which reduces the level of mercury to below acceptable concentrations of 0.01 ppm in wastes by employing a Swiss roll cell with a cadmium-coated, stainless-steel cathode. An industrial cell with a fluidized bed electrode has also been studied. Graphite, as an efficient porous electrode, has been used to remove traces of mercuric ions form aqueous electrolyte solutions. In order to apply the electrochemical method for some effluents, it is necessary to use sodium hypochlorite to convert elemental mercury and less soluble mercury compounds to water-soluble mercuric-chloride complex ions. 

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