Search results for "Trace element"
showing 10 items of 321 documents
Sicilian bottled natural waters: Major and trace inorganic components
2013
Sixteen bottled waters of various Sicilian brands, 11 natural mineral waters and five normal drinking waters, were analyzed for major and trace inorganic components by ion chromatography (IC) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), respectively. The bottled waters represent a variety of water types with significantly different compositions in terms of salinity, major components and trace elements. Chemically, they range from Ca–HCO3 and Ca–SO4 to Na–HCO3 types. Total dissolved solids ranges from 54 to 433 mg/L, total hardness from 25 to 238 mg/L CaCO3, and measured Na content from 5.7 to 57 mg/L. According to total dissolved ions, all the bottled waters were classified as…
Medical Geochemistry
2013
Preface.- How trace element contents in bronchoalveolar lavages can probe the human exposure to inhaled particulates.- Geochemistry and Biochemistry - insights into the fate and transport of Pt-based chemotherapy drugs.- Atmospheric Particulate Matter (PM) in the Middle East: Toxicity, trans-boundary transport and influence of synoptic conditions.- Reaction path modeling: theoretical aspects and applications.- An observation on the composition of urinary calculi: environment influence.- Magnetite minerals in the human brain: what's their role?.- Chemometrics and Medical Geochemistry: A brief tutorial.- Dust, metals and metalloids in the environment: from air to hair.- Metal Geochemistry of …
Mimicking shear zones: An example from Wadi Filk, Jordan
2017
Abstract Ductile shear zones can develop in at least two ways: (1) a nucleus can grow laterally by free propagation into undeformed host rock, like most faults or joints; (2) the zone may nucleate and grow on or in a planar discontinuity and mimick its orientation. Most small-scale ductile shear zones are mimicking zones, but large-scale ductile shear zones could be free-propagating. The Wadi Filk mylonite zone in Jordan is a two km long, ten meter wide mylonite zone flanked by ultramylonite zones, developed in undeformed Neoproterozoic porphyritic monzogranite. Since mineral and major element composition of mylonite and monzogranite are identical, the structure seems to have formed by free…
Isotope-dilution ICP-MS for trace element determination and speciation: from a reference method to a routine method?
2003
This critical review discusses the conditions under which inductively coupled plasma-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (ICP-IDMS) is suitable as a routine method for trace element and element-speciation analysis. It can, in general, be concluded that ICP-IDMS has high potential for routine analysis of trace elements if the accuracy of results is of predominant analytical importance. Hyphenated techniques with ICP-IDMS suffer both from lack of commercially available isotope-labeled spike compounds for species-specific isotope dilution and from the more complicated system set-up required for species-unspecific ICP-IDMS analysis. Coupling of gas or liquid chromatography with species-specific …
Premature aging in bone of fish from a highly polluted marine area
2015
Fish species have attracted considerable interest in studies assessing biological responses to environmental contaminants. In this study, the attention has been focussed on fishbone of selected fish species from a highly polluted marine area, Augusta Bay (Italy, Central Mediterranean) to evaluate if toxicant elements had an effect on the mineralogical structure of bones, although macroscopic deformations were not evident. In particular, an attempt was made to evaluate if bone mineral features, such as crystallinity, mineral maturity and carbonate/phosphate mineral content, determined by XR-Diffraction and FT-IR Spectroscopy, suffered negative effects due to trace element levels in fishbone,…
The impact of the Little ice age on coccolithophores in the central Mediterranea Sea
2010
The Little Ice Age (LIA) is the last episode of a series of Holocene climatic anomalies. There is still little knowledge on the response of the marine environment to the pronounced cooling of the LIA and to the transition towards the 20th century global warming. Here we present decadal-scale coccolithophore data from four short cores recovered from the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily Channel and Tyrrhenian Sea), which on the basis of <sup>210</sup>Pb activity span the last 200–350 years. The lowermost part of the record of one of the cores from the Sicily Channel, Station 407, which extends down to 1650 AD, is characterized by drastic changes in productivity. Specific…
TERMITE: AnRscript for fast reduction of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry data and its application to trace element measur…
2017
RATIONALE High spatial resolution Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) determination of trace element concentrations is of great interest for geological and environmental studies. Data reduction is a very important aspect of LA-ICP-MS, and several commercial programs for handling LA-ICPMS trace element data are available. Each of these software packages has its specific advantages and disadvantages. METHODS Here we present TERMITE, an R script for the reduction of LA-ICPMS data, which can reduce both spot and line scan measurements. Several parameters can be adjusted by the user, who does not necessarily need prior knowledge in R. Currently, ten reference m…
Mining minerals and critical raw materials from bittern: Understanding metal ions fate in saltwork ponds
2022
Seawater represents a potential resource for raw materials extraction. Although NaCl is the most representative mineral extracted other valuable compounds such as Mg, Li, Sr, Rb and B and elements at trace level (Cs, Co, In, Sc, Ga and Ge) are also contained in this “liquid mine”. Most of them are considered as Critical Raw Materials by the European Union. Solar saltworks, providing concentration factors of up-to 20 to 40, offer a perfect platform for the development of minerals and metal recovery schemes taking benefit of the concentration and purification achieved along the evaporation saltwork ponds. However, the geochemistry of these elements in this environment has not been yet thoroug…
Sustainable recovery of critical elements from seawater saltworks bitterns by integration of high selective sorbents and reactive precipitation and c…
2023
The availability of raw mineral resources containing elements included in the Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) list is a growing concern for the European Union. Sea mining has been identified as a promising secondary source. In particular, brines obtained in solar saltworks (bitterns) contain relevant amounts of valuable CRMs such as Mg(II), B(III), other alkaline/alkaline earth metals (Rb(I), Cs(I), Sr(II)) and transition/post-transition elements (Co(II), Ga(III), Ge(IV)). However, the low concentration of some of these elements (µg/L) requires an effort to develop recovery routes that are sustainable and economically feasible where the required chemicals and energy are produced on-site from …
Poplar rotation coppice at a trace element-contaminated phytomanagement site: A 10-year study revealing biomass production, element export and impact…
2019
Abstract Growing lignocellulosic crops on marginal lands could compose a substantial proportion of future energy resources. The potential of poplar was explored, by devising a field trial of two hectares in 2007 in a metal-contaminated site to quantify the genotypic variation in the growth traits of 14 poplar genotypes grown in short-rotation coppice and to assess element transfer and export by individual genotypes. Our data led us to conclusions about the genotypic variations in poplar growth on a moderately contaminated site, with the Vesten genotype being the most productive. This genotype also accumulated the least amounts of trace elements, whereas the Trichobel genotype accumulated up…