Evaluation of metal release from battery and electronic components in soil using SR‐TXRF and EDXRF

Abstract

Potentially toxic elements may be leached contaminating the soil, surface, and ground water due to the improper disposal of batteries and electronic devices. The objective of this study was to evaluate metal release from batteries and electronic components deposited in specific receptacles filled with soil in which acid rain was simulated. The leachate solution and the soil were analyzed by synchrotron radiation total reflection x‐ray fluorescence and benchtop energy dispersive x‐ray fluorescence, respectively. Results indicate that batteries released K, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Pb and electronic component released Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Pb. For batteries' leachate test samples, higher amounts of Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, and Pb have been released compared with electronic component ones under same the experimental conditions. The Fe, Cu, and Pb concentrations in battery leachate test samples were above their National Environment Council maximum permitted values (MPV) and in the electronic waste leachate ones, only the Pb concentrations was above MPV. For soil sample containing batteries K, Mn and Zn presented higher concentrations, mainly at the 10‐cm topsoil, ranging from 0.16 to 0.50, 0.27 to 8.67, and 0.03 to 1.26, in % (% w/w), respectively. The Zn–C battery soil samples present similar behavior to the alkaline ones. The impact due to the Pb release was higher in the soil test samples with electronic components, in which their concentrations ranged from 51 to 394 mg/kg, above its MPV up to 28‐cm soil layer. The X‐ray fluorescence techniques employed were suitable for water and soil environmental evaluation.

Environmental impacts, pollution sources and pathways of spent lithium-ion batteries

“…chemistries), will have a significant impact on various environmental compartments (Figure 3). LIBs contain a variety of chemicals including reactive salts, volatile organic electrolytes and additives: the latter are often commercial secrets and hence their toxicity and combustion products are largely unknown 155,156 . Moreover, battery fires, in combination with biogas from landfills, may release toxins into the air or leach the harmful contents into the soil, groundwater and surface water 118,157,158 .…”

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for environmental analysis: Basic principles, instrumentation, applications and recent trends

“…In this sense, Mans et al (2007) produced granulated and solid body acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrenebased plastic standards containing Br, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb. Specifically, EDXRF was successfully utilized as analytical tool for investigation of the potentially toxic elements release from batteries and electronic components deposited in soils (Rodrigues dos Santos et al, 2017).…”

Improved prediction of soil properties with Multi-target Stacked Generalisation on EDXRF spectra

“…EDXRF is a technique used in several study fields for identification and quantification of chemical elements present in varied materials (Byers et al, 2019;Khuder et al, 2010;Mantler and Schreiner, 2000;Parsons et al, 2013;Rodrigues dos Santos et al, 2017;Weindorf et al, 2012). The working principle of EDXRF depends on the interaction of high-energy Xrays with matter.…”