Palladium Chloride Used For Detecting Mercury In The Air

Palladium chloride, a chemical compounds with the formula PdCl2, is a common starting material in palladium chemistry – palladium-based catalysts are of particular value in organic synthesis. It is prepared by dissolving palladium metal in aqua regia or hydrochloric acid in the presence of chlorine. Alternatively, it may be prepared by heating palladium sponge with chlorine gas at 500 °C.

Palladium chloride films have been found to be useful as alternatives to the gold films heretofore used to detect airborne elemental mercury at concentrations of the order of parts per billion (ppb). Somewhat more specifically, when suitably prepared palladium chloride films are exposed to parts-per-billion or larger concentrations of airborne mercury, their electrical resistances change by amounts large enough to be easily measurable. Because airborne mercury adversely affects health, it is desirable to be able to detect it with high sensitivity, especially in enclosed environments in which there is a risk of leakage of mercury from lamps or other equipment.

The detection of mercury by use of gold films involves the formation of gold/mercury amalgam. Gold films offer adequate sensitivity for detection of airborne mercury and could easily be integrated into an electronicnose system designed tooperate in the temperature range of 23 to 28 °C. Unfortunately, in order to regenerate a gold-film mercury sensor, one must heat it to a temperature of 200 °C for several minutes in clean flowing air.

In preparation for an experiment to demonstrate the present sensor concept, palladium chloride was deposited from an aqueous solution onto sets of gold electrodes and sintered in air to form a film. Then while using the gold electrodes to measure the electrical resistance of the films, the films were exposed, at a temperature of 25 °C, to humidified air containing mercury at various concentrations from 0 to 35 ppb (see figure). The results of this and other experiments have been interpreted as signifying that sensors of this type can detect mercury in roomtemperature air at concentrations of at least 2.5 ppb and can readily be regenerated at temperatures < 40 °C.

Palladium chloride(CAS No. 7647-10-1) in aqueous solution can be used an an en bloc stain for elastic fibers in Epon-embedded tissues. The visualization of elastic fibers in thick sections stained with toluidine blue appears to be greatly enhanced by this technique. Elastic fibers in thin sections counterstained with lead citrate are moderately electron dense and microfibrils are easily identified. Counterstaining with uranyl acetate and lead citrate results in increased contrast of elastic fibers that varies according to the length of exposure to uranyl acetate. However, as the elastic fibers become more electron dense, the microfibrils are less easily distinguished.

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