Source apportionment of PAHs and n-alkanes bound to PM1 collected near the Venice highway.

n-Alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) bound to atmospheric particulate matter (PM1) were investigated in a traffic site located in an urban area of Venice Province (Eastern Po Valley, Italy) during the cold season. Considering the critical situation affecting the Veneto Region concerning the atmospheric pollution and the general lack of information on PM1 composition and emission in this area, this experimental study aims at determining the source profile, their relative contributions and the dispersion of finer particles. Four sources were identified and quantified using the Positive Matrix Factorization receptor model: (1) mixed combustions related to the residential activities, (2) agricultural biomass burning in addition to the resuspension of anthropogenic and natural debris carried by the wind, (3) gasoline and (4) diesel traffic-related combustions. The role of local atmospheric circulation was also investigated to identify the pollutant sources.

Multi-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of road dust samples from a traffic area of Venice using stoichiometric and environmental references.

The appropriate selection of representative pure compounds to be used as reference is a crucial step for successful analysis of X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) data, and it is often not a trivial task. This is particularly true when complex environmental matrices are investigated, being their elemental speciation a priori unknown. In this paper, an investigation on the speciation of Cu, Zn, and Sb based on the use of conventional (stoichiometric compounds) and non-conventional (environmental samples or relevant certified materials) references is explored. This method can be useful in when the effectiveness of XANES analysis is limited because of the difficulty in obtaining a set of references sufficiently representative of the investigated samples. Road dust samples collected along the bridge connecting Venice to the mainland were used to show the potentialities and the limits of this approach.

Carbonate and Silicate Abundance Indexing in Coarse-Grained River Sediments Using Diffuse Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and Ion-Beam-Induced Luminescence (IBIL) Spectroscopies.

Two different types of spectroscopic methods, namely diffuse reflection infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTS) as a vibrational spectroscopy and ion-beam-induced luminescence (IBIL) as an optical spectroscopy, have been exploited for the analysis of three sand samples collected from the Adige, Bacchiglione, and Brenta rivers (Veneto, Northern Italy) with the aim to set up a procedure for the comparison of the relative abundance of silicates, carbonates, and feldspars. By fitting the spectra, the features corresponding to different geological compounds have been identified and descriptive indexes of their relative amount have been obtained by comparing the peak area ratios.

IBIL analysis of road dust samples from San Bernardo tunnel.

Road dust in urban or industrial sites is an important source of atmospheric particulate by re-suspension of finer particles that may contain potentially toxic pollutants. In this work Ion Beam Induced Luminescence (IBIL), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy analyses were used to characterize road dust samples with particle size lower than 250 µm collected on the walls and on the floor of the ventilation air shaft of "Traforo del San Bernardo" highway tunnel. Moreover, for comparison, IBIL analyses were performed both on some possible anthropic sources of particulate matter and on a road dust reference sample (BCR-723). IBIL spectra as a function of the fluence were analyzed with a multivariate approach in order to identify the spectral components evolving with different rate. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy analyses were performed on extracted samples of the road dust in order to study the contribution of organic compounds to the IBIL features. Results point out that IBIL, here performed for the first time for road dust analysis, can be applied for the identification of compounds by characterizing the sample origin.

Multivariate analysis of Ion Beam Induced Luminescence spectra of irradiated silver ion-exchanged silicate glasses.

A multivariate analysis is used for the identification of the spectral features in Ion Beam Induced Luminescence (IBIL) spectra of soda-lime silicate glasses doped with silver by Ag(+)-Na(+) ion exchange. Both Principal Component Analysis and multivariate analysis were used to characterize time-evolving IBIL spectra of Ag-doped glasses, by means of the identification of the number and of the wavelength positions of the main luminescent features and the study of their evolution during irradiation. This method helps to identify the spectral features of the samples spectra, even when partially overlapped or less intense. This analysis procedure does not require additional input such as the number of peaks.