Spatial distribution, ecological risk assessment, and potential sources of heavy metal(loid)s in surface sediments from the Huai River within the Bengbu section, China.

The Huai River is one of the major drinking water resources in Bengbu City of China's eastern Anhui Province. The study focused on extracting information for spatial distributions of heavy metal(loid)s (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) based on the contents of pollutants in 20 surface sediments. Geoaccumulation index and Hakanson potential ecological index were used to calculate the ecological risk of sediment environment in this paper. The I geo results indicated that the sediments were moderately contaminated by Hg and Pb. The potential ecological risk sequence of the metals was Hg > Cd > Pb > Cu > Ni > Cr > Zn > As. Among the metal(loid)s, Hg was the main source of pollution that contributed ∼76% towards the potential ecological risk, followed by Cd. Finally, multivariate statistical analysis methods were conducted to identify the potential causes of pollution and provide basis for environment treatment in Bengbu Reach. The results depicted that Pb may be mainly derived from the traffic emission and manufacturing industry, while Hg may be originated from agricultural emissions.

Site energy distribution analysis of Cu (â ¡) adsorption on sediments and residues by sequential extraction method.

Many models (e.g., Langmuir model, Freundlich model and surface complexation model) have been successfully used to explain the mechanism of metal ion adsorption on the pure mineral materials. These materials usually have a homogeneous surface where all sites have the same adsorption energies. However, it's hardly appropriate for such models to describe the adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces (e.g., sediment surface), site energy distribution analysis can be to. In the present study, the site energy distribution analysis was used to describe the surface properties and adsorption behavior of the non-residual and residual components extracted from the natural aquatic sediment samples. The residues were prepared "in-situ" by using the sequential extraction procedure. The present study is intended to investigate the roles of different components and the change of site energy distribution at different temperatures of the sediment samples in controlling Cu (Ⅱ) adsorption. The results of the site energy distribution analysis indicated firstly, that the sorption sites of iron/manganese hydrous oxides (IMHO) and organic matter (OM) have higher energy. Secondly, light fraction (LF) and carbonates have little influence on site energy distribution. Finally, there was increase in site energies with the increase of temperature. Specially, low temperature (5 °C) significantly influenced the site energies of IMHO and OM, and also had obvious effect on the energy distribution of the sediments after removing target components. The site energy distribution analysis proved to be a useful method for us to further understand the energetic characteristics of sediment in comparison with those previously obtained.

[FTIR study of adsorption of PCP on hematite surface].

The adsorption of pentachlorophenol on hematite was studied through adsorption experiments and FTIR analysis. The pH adsorption isotherms of pentachlorophenol onto hematite were obtained by the static state experiments. The largest adsorption quantity occurred at about pH 6. The adsorption quantity at pH 8.5 of the isoelectric point of hematite was about 31% of the largest adsorption quantity. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to analyse the change of hematite before and after PCP adsorption, and the species of PCP on hematite. It was discovered that: (1) the typical peak at 565 cm(-1) of the Fe-O bond in alpha-Fe2O3 did not change before and after adsorption, and the adsorption occurred on the surface of hematite. (2) At pH 6.0, the stretching vibration peak at 3 438 cm(-1) due to the hydrogen bond formed between O-H on the surface of alpha-Fe2O3 and water molecules shifted to 3 417 cm(-1). The bending vibration peak of H-O-H+ on the surface at 1 643 cm(-1) was weakened because of complex reaction. The peak owing to Fe-OH bond was displaced from 1 050-1 100 cm(-1) to 950 cm(-1) with increased intensity. The C-O bond stretching vibration peak of PCP was displaced from 1 215 to 1 122 cm(-1). The main interaction between PCP and hematite was static electric interaction. (3) At pH 8.5, the stretching vibration peak of the hydrogen bond formed between O-H on the surface of alpha-Fe2O3 and water molecules was displaced from 3 438 to 3 428 cm(-1). The bending vibration peak at 1 643 cm(-1) was obviously weakened because of the hydrogen bonding. The H-O-H+ bending vibration peak at 1 050-1 100 cm(-1) was displaced to 947 cm(-1) with obviously increased intensity, indicating that the interaction was mainly through hydrogen bond.