Influence of humic substances on photolysis of divalent mercury in aqeous solution

Mercury (II) solutions were irradiated by a simulated sunlight in the presence of humic acid (HA) or fulvic acid (FA). Results show that, under the experimental conditions and the FA and HA chosen, less than 20% of the Hg in solution was photolysed with a rate of (1.63\ub10.29) 710–2 s–1 (n=23) and the rest of (2.38\ub10.40) 710–4 s–1 (n=23) depending on the substitutes of humic substances to which Hg were bond. The sunlight photolysis lifetimes were estimated to be 4 and 250 sunlight hours respectively under summer conditions at Stockholm latitude