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Migration of Ag, In, Sn, Sb, and Bi and Their Chemical Forms in a Monolith Lysimeter Filled with a Contaminated Andosol

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Abstract

Despite the wide use of trace metals in various technologies, such as chemical industries and electronic equipment, insufficient information is available on their behavior in the environment. We investigated changes in chemical forms and vertical distribution during the migration processes of trace metals, whose usage is currently increasing rapidly, such as Ag, In, Sn, Sb, and Bi, in soil contaminated with the equivalent of 50–100 times the background concentrations of these metals using an indoor control type monolith lysimeter filled with Andosol during an 8-year monitoring period. The vertical distribution of the total elemental concentrations, the mobile fractions (exchangeable, carbonate-bound, and metal–organic complex-bound) in soils, and the total elemental concentrations in soil solutions were analyzed to study trace metal migration in soil. Except for In, most of the added metals were retained in the uppermost (0–2 cm) soil layer, even after 8 years. However, In markedly migrated downward and accumulated at a depth of approximately 15 cm after 8 years. Furthermore, 10.0 ± 2.9 μg L−1 of In was detected in soil solution at a depth of 17.5 cm. The mobility of In was probably caused by the acidity of the soil, because the pH of the soil between 0 and 15-cm depth was 5 and below, and soluble hydro-oxides, such as In(OH) 03 aq and In(OH) +2 , might be produced at this pH. Consequently, the remarkable mobility of In occurred in Andosol, which strongly retains various trace metals. The proportions of the mobile fractions observed in this study indicated that the mobility of the five metals in Andosol occurred in the order In > Bi ≥ Sb ≥ Sn > Ag.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. A. Tanaka, Ms. M. Okawa, Ms. M. Hirano, Ms. F. Sato, Ms. S. Kinoshita, and Ms. R. Kumata at NIES for their assistance in measuring elemental concentrations (using ICP-AES, -MS, and CHN analyzers). They also thank the informative comments, especially about chemical forms of indium, from the anonymous reviewers. This study was supported by a Grant for Environmental Research Projects from a Grant for Scientific Research of Waste Management from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (K1639) and a Next Generation Environment-Friendly Soldering Technology (EFSOT) project (prime contractor: Hitachi Ltd.) as part of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) program.

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  1. Center for Regional Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Onogawa 16-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8506, Japan

    Tomoyoshi Murata, Masami K. Koshikawa, Mirai Watanabe & Takejiro Takamatsu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, No. 8 Dayangfang, Beijing, 100012, China

    Hong Hou

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  1. Tomoyoshi Murata
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Correspondence to Tomoyoshi Murata.

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Murata, T., Koshikawa, M.K., Watanabe, M. et al. Migration of Ag, In, Sn, Sb, and Bi and Their Chemical Forms in a Monolith Lysimeter Filled with a Contaminated Andosol. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 74, 154–169 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-017-0437-2

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