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Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques

A case is presented for the value of archiving air quality filters to allow for retrospective analysis of emerging contaminants, that is filter constituents not considered to be harmful (and thus not identified or quantified specifically) at the time of collection but subsequently considered to be o...

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Autores principales: Talbot, Nick, Dirks, Kim N., Fan, Wendy, Patel, Hamesh, Costello, Seosamh B., Brook, Martin, Davy, Perry
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9669066/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405324
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.1032624
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author Talbot, Nick
Dirks, Kim N.
Fan, Wendy
Patel, Hamesh
Costello, Seosamh B.
Brook, Martin
Davy, Perry
author_facet Talbot, Nick
Dirks, Kim N.
Fan, Wendy
Patel, Hamesh
Costello, Seosamh B.
Brook, Martin
Davy, Perry
author_sort Talbot, Nick
collection PubMed
description A case is presented for the value of archiving air quality filters to allow for retrospective analysis of emerging contaminants, that is filter constituents not considered to be harmful (and thus not identified or quantified specifically) at the time of collection but subsequently considered to be of interest. As an example, filters from a 20-year historical archive consisting of 16,000 filters from three sites across Auckland are re-examined for the presence of elongated mineral fibres known to be present in rock across the city. Originally collected for the purpose of the source apportionment of particulate matter, 10 filters from each of the three sites were chosen for reanalysis based on their high silica and aluminium content, and thus considered more likely to contain fibre-like particles (FLP). These filters were analysed using various microscopic methods, including phase contrast microscopy (PCM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that although the commonly used fibrous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) material of the filters may hamper the visual identification of any fibre-like particles under a certain length, their key components are able to be identified using a combination of PCM and SEM when they are of a suitable dimension and have settled in a certain orientation on the filter. In this case, the use of EDS confirmed the silicon content of the fibres and also revealed elemental spectra. Although the exact identification of the mineral fibre is uncertain, the EDS scan is consistent with hazardous zeolites such as erionite, known to be present in the rock found in Auckland. This study highlights the value in maintaining filter archives for the purpose of investigating the historical evolution of emerging atmospheric pollutants.
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spelling pubmed-96690662022-11-18 Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques Talbot, Nick Dirks, Kim N. Fan, Wendy Patel, Hamesh Costello, Seosamh B. Brook, Martin Davy, Perry Front Chem Chemistry A case is presented for the value of archiving air quality filters to allow for retrospective analysis of emerging contaminants, that is filter constituents not considered to be harmful (and thus not identified or quantified specifically) at the time of collection but subsequently considered to be of interest. As an example, filters from a 20-year historical archive consisting of 16,000 filters from three sites across Auckland are re-examined for the presence of elongated mineral fibres known to be present in rock across the city. Originally collected for the purpose of the source apportionment of particulate matter, 10 filters from each of the three sites were chosen for reanalysis based on their high silica and aluminium content, and thus considered more likely to contain fibre-like particles (FLP). These filters were analysed using various microscopic methods, including phase contrast microscopy (PCM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that although the commonly used fibrous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) material of the filters may hamper the visual identification of any fibre-like particles under a certain length, their key components are able to be identified using a combination of PCM and SEM when they are of a suitable dimension and have settled in a certain orientation on the filter. In this case, the use of EDS confirmed the silicon content of the fibres and also revealed elemental spectra. Although the exact identification of the mineral fibre is uncertain, the EDS scan is consistent with hazardous zeolites such as erionite, known to be present in the rock found in Auckland. This study highlights the value in maintaining filter archives for the purpose of investigating the historical evolution of emerging atmospheric pollutants. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9669066/ /pubmed/36405324 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.1032624 Text en Copyright © 2022 Talbot, Dirks, Fan, Patel, Costello, Brook and Davy. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Chemistry
Talbot, Nick
Dirks, Kim N.
Fan, Wendy
Patel, Hamesh
Costello, Seosamh B.
Brook, Martin
Davy, Perry
Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title_full Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title_fullStr Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title_full_unstemmed Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title_short Reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
title_sort reanalysis of historic elemental speciation filters to investigate the presence of fibrous mineral particles using microscopy techniques
topic Chemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9669066/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405324
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.1032624
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