Identification and Quantification of Hazardous Elements and Compounds in Biomass Originating from Various Sources

Dear Colleagues,

Biomass is composed of organic materials originating from plants or animals such as crop waste, forestry residues, agricultural residues, algae, energy crops, and food wastes. Industrialization is one of the major sources of environmental pollution and a worldwide concern. Heavy/toxic metals such as Pb, As, Hg, Cd, and Cr are used in many industrial, urban, and agricultural applications. Soil contaminated by these toxic metals is of great concern. As these metals may migrate into plants and crops grown in such contaminated soil and into water, they can have adverse effects on human health. This also affects the yields of crops, plats and their residuals. The uptake and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in vegetables are influenced by several factors such as climate, atmospheric depositions, and the concentrations of heavy metals in soil and plants. Thus, the improper management of discharges from industries is causing a large amount of damage to the living population in nearby areas. Regulations have been set up in many countries and for different industrial conditions to control the emission of heavy metals.

Additionally, the use of hazardous materials such as fireworks, explosives, insecticides and pesticides, etc. has become very dangerous for living creatures. The toxic substances present in these materials release toxic elements and gases, and thus, contaminate our environment (soil, water, and air), posing a potential threat to human health. Hazardous waste can be harmful immediately or after reacting with other materials in the environment. The increasing use of energetic materials by rebel activities poses a threat to several areas such as security screening, law enforcement, health safety, environmental remediation, and many others. Thus, due to the increasing threats to national security, as well as due to the loss of lives and property, the detection and identification of energetic materials have become vital/important and challenging jobs in the modern world.

Therefore, the rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective compositional analysis of these materials is paramount. For a qualitative and quantitative analysis of constituents present in these materials, different analytical techniques such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), electron dispersion X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) are commonly used. In the past decade, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has emerged as a quick, ecofriendly, efficient, and useful analytical technique for the detection of trace and major constituents present in any type of material. For the identification of the organic/inorganic compounds which have adverse effects on living organisms, PAS, UV-VIS, FTIR, and LIF techniques are in use. 

Thus, the objective of this Special Issue is to perform a comparative study of different materials containing toxic elements and compounds that are harmful to human health and the environment using the above spectroscopic techniques, including the LIBS technique.

Prof. Dr. Awadhesh Kumar Rai
Dr. Rohit Kumar
Guest Editors

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• laser spectroscopy
• biomass
• soil contamination
• pollution
• LIBS
• multivariate analysis