Proton induced γ-ray emission yields for the analysis of light elements in aerosol samples in an external beam set-up

Calzolai, Giulia; Chiari, M.; Lucarelli, F.; Nava, S.; Portarena, Silvia

doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2010.03.002

Cited by 46 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…PIXE analyses were performed with 3 MeV protons from the 3 MV Tandetron accelerator of the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence, with the external beam set-up extensively described elsewhere [24,25]. The beam scanned the streak in steps corresponding to 1 h of aerosol sampling; each spot was irradiated for about 180 s with a beam intensity ranging from 20 nA to 30 nA.…”

Section: Fine and Coarse Particle Elemental Composition: Streakermentioning

confidence: 99%

High-time resolution and size-segregated elemental composition in high-intensity pyrotechnic exposures

Crespo

Yubero

Nicolás

et al. 2012

Journal of Hazardous Materials

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h i g h l i g h t sStreaker/Dekati/PIXE are suitable to study high-intensity short-lived firework events. Fireworks related elements showed >80% elemental mass in the submicrometric region. Resuspended soil dust is an important source of atmospheric particles in these shows. a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tTypical of festivals in Eastern Spain, mascletàs are high-intensity pyrotechnic events where thousands of firecrackers are burnt in an intense, rapid episode that generates short-lived heavy aerosol clouds. High temporal resolution and size distribution characterisation of aerosol components were performed to evaluate the effects of the brief (<30 min) and acute exposure on the spectators present. Very high concentrations of firework specific elements, especially in the fine fraction, were reached during mascletàs, with values of about 500 g/m 3 for K and 300 g/m 3 for Cl. Sr, Al, Mg, Ba, Cu, Co, Zn, and Pb concentration increase factors of more than 100 (1000 for Sr and Ba) were observed in the fine fraction with respect to background levels. Crustal origin elements, like Ca, Fe, Si, Ti, also showed an important concentration rise (∼10 times above background levels) but this is due to dust resuspension by pyrotechnic explosions. The crustal components are mainly in the coarse mode (>90% elemental mass), between 2 and 3 m. Most firework related metals are concentrated in the submicrometric region (>80%) with a trimodal size distribution. This may be interesting to epidemiologists given the toxic effects that such fine, metal-rich particles can have on human health.

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Section: Fine and Coarse Particle Elemental Composition: Streakermentioning

confidence: 99%

High-time resolution and size-segregated elemental composition in high-intensity pyrotechnic exposures

Crespo

Yubero

Nicolás

et al. 2012

Journal of Hazardous Materials

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“…The XRF method has been successfully applied to aerosol characterization in the last decades. Measurement of low sample mass typically requires high sensitivity (or a low minimum detection limit, MDL) and hence access to a synchrotron or accelerator facilities (Bukowiecki et al, 2005(Bukowiecki et al, , 2008Calzolai et al, 2010Calzolai et al, , 2015Lucarelli et al, 2011;Richard et al, 2010;Visser et al, 2015b;Yatkin et al, 2016), which is notoriously difficult due to the demand for analysis time at such facilities. Access restrictions limit the number of collected samples to be analysed, and hence field campaigns are predominantly episodic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elemental composition of ambient aerosols measured with high temporal resolution using an online XRF spectrometer

Furger

Minguillón

Yadav³

et al. 2017

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Abstract. The Xact 625 Ambient Metals Monitor was tested during a 3-week field campaign at the rural, trafficinfluenced site Härkingen in Switzerland during the summer of 2015. The field campaign encompassed the Swiss National Day fireworks event, providing increased concentrations and unique chemical signatures compared to non-fireworks (or background) periods. The objective was to evaluate the data quality by intercomparison with other independent measurements and test its applicability for aerosol source quantification. The Xact was configured to measure 24 elements in PM 10 with 1 h time resolution. Data quality was evaluated for 10 24 h averages of Xact data by intercomparison with 24 h PM 10 filter data analysed with ICP-OES for major elements, ICP-MS for trace elements, and gold amalgamation atomic absorption spectrometry for Hg. Ten elements (S, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ba, Pb) showed excellent correlation between the compared methods, with r 2 values ≥ 0.95. However, the slopes of the regressions between Xact 625 and ICP data varied from 0.97 to 1.8 (average 1.28) and thus indicated generally higher Xact elemental concentrations than ICP for these elements. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed, but further investigations are needed. For the remaining elements no conclusions could be drawn about their quantification for various reasons, mainly detection limit issues. An indirect intercomparison of hourly values was performed for the fireworks peak, which brought good agreement of total masses when the Xact data were corrected with the regressions from the 24 h value intercomparison. The results demonstrate that multi-metal characterization at hightime-resolution capability of Xact is a valuable and practical tool for ambient monitoring.

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“…Quantitative analysis of the coarse aerosol fraction (PM 10 ) can be hampered by X-ray attenuation in the large particles, known as the particle size effect. [1,2] Proton induced X-ray emission is a very competitive alternative for XRF analysis of aerosols. It features lower detection limits than XRF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the detection limits improve with longer measuring times, it implies that PIXE measurements can be performed about a factor of 5 to 10 times faster. [1,3] Because a collimated scanning beam can be used, samples with high-temporal resolution (streak samples) of high-size resolution (impactor samples) can be analysed. The literature on PIXE applications is therefore abundant, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the uniformity of aerosol filters by scanning MA‐XRF

et al. 2017

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Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is an attractive analytical method to determine the level of air pollution by heavy metals. The concentration of the filter in ng/cm 2 is obtained by direct comparison of the net characteristic line intensity of an element with that of a thin film standard. As the sampled area on the filter and the area of the standard are larger than the area analysed by the instrument, the distribution of the elements on the surface of both samples and standards have to be sufficiently uniform. If this is not the case, biased concentration estimates are obtained. Two scanning macro-XRF setups with a beam diameter of~0.5 mm were used to investigate the distribution of elements in (1) commercially available (Micromatter) standards, (2) in-house quartz filter standards obtained with an aerosol generator and (3) particulate matter (PM 10 ) collected on quartz filters by a Leckel SEQ 47/50 sampler. The uniformity of the Micromatter standards was better than 2%. At least some in-house standards showed a concave distribution with less material at the edges. The maximum bias introduced by this is less than 5%. Because of the limited sensitivity of scanning XRF compared with conventional XRF, the distribution of only a few common elements like Ca and Fe could be determined reliably in aerosol filters. The distribution of some heavy elements could only be measured in filters sampled in polluted regions. In general, the loading of particulate matter over the filters was uniform.

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Proton induced γ-ray emission yields for the analysis of light elements in aerosol samples in an external beam set-up

Cited by 46 publications

References 14 publications

High-time resolution and size-segregated elemental composition in high-intensity pyrotechnic exposures

High-time resolution and size-segregated elemental composition in high-intensity pyrotechnic exposures

Elemental composition of ambient aerosols measured with high temporal resolution using an online XRF spectrometer

Study of the uniformity of aerosol filters by scanning MA‐XRF

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