Mercury emission from industrial activities has become a major environmental health concern, because mercury is one of the most toxic metals encountered in the environment. Elemental mercury is the dominant Hg species in gas streams. Adsorption is regarded as a practical technique for Hg⁰ removal, for which developing efficient and economic adsorbents are needed. Chalcogenides have recently gained increasing research interest owing to their high binding affinity for Hg⁰. Chalcogen-based adsorbents include S-modified adsorbents, H₂S- and SO₂-activated adsorbents, polysulfide chalcogels, mineral sulfides and metal selenides. This article reviews chalcogen-based adsorbents for Hg⁰ capture from gas streams, with focus on removal performances, mechanisms, advantages and disadvantages. Results show that S modification, and H₂S and SO₂ activation generate a great variety of active sulfur species on the adsorbent surface, resulting in enhanced Hg⁰ removal activity. Sulfur species include elemental sulfur, sulfide, thiophene and sulfate. Nonetheless, removal efficiency decreases to some extent due to the presence of acidic flue gas components and steam. On the other hand, mineral sulfides and metal selenides exhibit outstanding Hg⁰ removal performances with fast adsorption rate, high mercury capacity and excellent resistance to SO₂ and H₂O. Yet most mineral sulfides and metal selenides perform well below 100 °C, which might limit industrial applications.

由于汞是环境中遇到的最具毒性的金属之一，因此，工业活动中的汞排放已成为环境健康的主要问题。元素汞是气流中主要的Hg物种。吸附被认为是用于去除Hg ⁰的实用技术，为此需要开发高效，经济的吸附剂。硫族化物由于对Hg ⁰的高结合亲和力，最近已引起越来越多的研究兴趣。基于硫属元素的吸附剂包括S改性的吸附剂，H ₂ S和SO ₂活化的吸附剂，多硫化物硫醇凝胶，矿物硫化物和金属硒化物。本文评论了基于硫族元素的Hg ⁰吸附剂从气流中捕获，着重于去除性能，机理，优点和缺点。结果表明，S的修饰以及H ₂ S和SO _2的活化在吸附剂表面产生大量的活性硫，从而提高了Hg ^0的 去除活性。硫物质包括元素硫，硫化物，噻吩和硫酸盐。尽管如此，由于酸性烟道气成分和蒸汽的存在，去除效率在一定程度上降低了。另一方面，矿物硫化物和金属硒化物具有出色的Hg ⁰去除性能，具有快速的吸附速率，高的汞容量以及出色的SO ₂和H ₂耐受性O.然而，大多数矿物硫化物和金属硒化物的性能远低于100°C，这可能会限制工业应用。