Accumulation and oxidation of elemental mercury in tropical soils.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The role of chemical and mineralogical soil properties in the retention and oxidation of atmospheric mercury in tropical soils is discussed based on thermal desorption analysis. The retention of gaseous mercury by tropical soils varied greatly both quantitatively and qualitatively with soil type. The average
natural mercury content of soils was 0.08 ± 0.06 lg g 1 with a maximum of 0.215 ± 0.009 lg g 1. After gaseous Hg0 incubation experiments, mercury content of investigated soils ranged from 0.6 ± 0.2 to 735 ± 23 lg g 1, with a mean value of 44 ± 146 lg g 1. Comparatively, A horizon of almost all soil types adsorbed more mercury than B horizon from the same soil, which demonstrates the key role of organic
matter in mercury adsorption. In addition to organic matter, pH and CEC also appear to be important soil characteristics for the adsorption of mercury. All thermograms showed Hg2+ peaks, which were predominant
in most of them, indicating that elemental mercury oxidized in tropical soils. After four months of incubation, the thermograms showed oxidation levels from 70% to 100%. As none of the samples presented only the Hg0 peak, and the soils retained varying amounts of mercury despite exposure under
the same incubation conditions, it became clear that oxidation occurred on soil surface. Organic matter seemed to play a key role in mercury oxidation through complexation/stabilization of the oxidized forms. The lower percentages of available mercury (extracted with KNO3) in A horizons when compared to B horizons support this idea.
Description
Keywords
Atmospheric mercury, Chemical transformations, Adsorption, Thermal desorption
Citation
SOARES, L. C. et al. Accumulation and oxidation of elemental mercury in tropical soils. Chemosphere, v. 134, p. 181-191, 2015. Disponível em: <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653515003483>. Acesso em: 13 out 2015.