Using FlFFF and aTEM to determine trace metal - nanoparticle associations in riverbed sediment
- Author(s)
- Kelly Plathe, Frank von der Kammer, Martin Hassellov, Johnnie Moore, Mitsu Murayama, Thilo Hofmann, Michael F. Hochella
- Abstract
Abstract. Analytical transmission electron microscopy (aTEM) and flow field flow fractionation (FlFFF) coupled to multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS) and high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (HR-ICPMS) were utilised to elucidate relationships between trace metals and nanoparticles in contaminated sediment. Samples were obtained from the Clark Fork River (Montana, USA), where a large-scale dam removal project has released reservoir sediment contaminated with toxic trace metals (namely Pb, Zn, Cu and As) which had accumulated from a century of mining activities upstream. An aqueous extraction method was used to recover nanoparticles from the sediment for examination; FlFFF results indicate that the toxic metals are held in the nano-size fraction of the sediment and their peak shapes and size distributions correlate best with those for Fe and Ti. TEM data confirms this on a single nanoparticle scale; the toxic metals were found almost exclusively associated with nano-size oxide minerals, most commonly brookite, goethite and lepidocrocite.
- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , University of Gothenburg, Montana State University–Northern
- Journal
- Environmental Chemistry
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 82-93
- No. of pages
- 12
- Publication date
- 2010
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105904 Environmental research
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/8e7dc84e-13fd-4af9-9edb-4fda61d206e9