Insights into binding mechanism of silver/titanium dioxide composites for enhanced elemental mercury capture

Highlights: • The Hg⁰ adsorption efficiency is crucially enhanced when TiO₂ and silver cooperate. • The electron transferred from Hg⁰ to the deposited silver cluster and the entire TiO₂ contributed to the strong binding. • The formation of stable silver ions at the TiO₂ interface acted as attractive sites for Hg⁰ capture. • Hg⁰ deposits on a junction interface of silver ions and subsequently spillovers to form stable silver amalgam.