Issue 3, 2016

Nanoparticles in road dust from impervious urban surfaces: distribution, identification, and environmental implications

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) resulting from urban road dust resuspension are an understudied class of pollutants in urban environments with strong potential for health hazards. The objective of this study was to investigate the heavy metal and nanoparticle content of PM2.5 generated in the laboratory using novel aerosolization of 66 road dust samples collected throughout the mega-city of Shanghai (China). The samples were characterized using an array of techniques including inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry, aerosol size distribution measurements, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy coupled with elemental characterization and electron diffraction. Principal metal concentrations were plotted geospatially. Results show that metals were generally enriched in aerosolized samples relative to the bulk dust. Elevated concentrations of metals were found mostly in downtown areas with intense traffic. Fe-, Pb-, Zn-, and Ba-containing NPs were identified using electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and diffraction, and we tentatively identify most of them as either engineered, incidental, or naturally occurring NPs. For example, dangerous Pb sulfide and sulfate NPs likely have an incidental origin and are also sometimes associated with Sn; we believe that these materials originated from an e-waste plant. Size distributions of most aerosolized samples presented a peak in the ultrafine range (<100 nm). We estimate that 3.2 ± 0.7 μg mg−1 of Shanghai road dust may become resuspended in the form of PM2.5. Aerosolization, as done in this study, seems to be a very useful approach to study NPs in dust.

Graphical abstract: Nanoparticles in road dust from impervious urban surfaces: distribution, identification, and environmental implications

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 mar 2016
Accepted
10 may 2016
First published
24 may 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2016,3, 534-544

Nanoparticles in road dust from impervious urban surfaces: distribution, identification, and environmental implications

Y. Yang, M. Vance, F. Tou, A. Tiwari, M. Liu and M. F. Hochella, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2016, 3, 534 DOI: 10.1039/C6EN00056H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements