Publication
Title
TEM-EDX investigation on Zn- and Pb-contaminated soils
Author
Abstract
Lead and zinc contaminated soils from a smelter area in the northern part of France have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This study was carried out with 4 different soils contaminated by Pb and Zn bur with different chemical and physical characteristics. Two soils are tilled and have a neutral or slightly basic pH, one is a wooded soil and the last one is a meadow soil with acidic pH and high total organic content. TEM images of the soil samples have been coupled with focused energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses and chemical mapping on a few micron-sized windows. This study demonstrates that TEM is a particularly efficient method to investigate metal speciation in the fine fractions of the contaminated soils. Zinc could be detected locally in sulphide minerals probably coming from the smelter emissions, but the major phases retaining Zn are Fe-oxyhydroxides and smectites. Lead could be detected in small aggregates which were characterized by EDX and selected area electron diffraction. Their structural formulae correspond to a pyromorphite-like mineral in which Pb is partly substituted by Ca and Na. Pyromorphite is present only in the wooded and meadow soils where it forms partly from amorphous Si-rich phases (slags) coming from the smelter. These results are compared with data previously obtained by spectroscopic methods on the same samples. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Applied geochemistry. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : 2001
ISSN
0883-2927
DOI
10.1016/S0883-2927(01)00015-4
Volume/pages
16 :9-10 (2001) , p. 1165-1177
ISI
000168492800013
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.01.2013
Last edited 16.12.2021
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