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Prof. Dr. Gene Hall

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Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

Prof. Dr. Begoña González

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Advanced Separation Processes Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310 Vigo, Spain

Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment

Abstract submission deadline

31 May 2025

Manuscript submission deadline

31 July 2025

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Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Topic will focus on the analyses and separations of trace elements in the environment. The main focus will be on using current analytical instrumentation that will include inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission (ICP-OES), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Elemental speciation will also be discussed.

The Topic will demonstrate that the above analytical techniques can be used to analyze a variety of environmental samples that will include water, soil, tree rings, aerosols, and different types of plants. Sample preparation is an important step in the goals of successful characterization and quantification of trace elements in the environment.

Prof. Dr. Gene Hall
Prof. Dr. Begoña González
Topic Editors

Keywords

heavy metals
ICP-OES
ICP-MS
speciation
chromatography
soil
tree rings
drinking water
aerosols
EDXRF

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Molecules molecules	4.2	7.4	1996	15.1 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
Separations separations	2.5	3.0	2014	15.1 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Sustainability sustainability	3.3	6.8	2009	19.7 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Water water	3.0	5.8	2009	17.5 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Minerals minerals	2.2	4.1	2011	18 Days	CHF 2400	Submit

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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19 pages, 5204 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Heavy Metal Content and Identification of Their Sources in Bottom Sediments and Various Macrophyte Species of the Narew River (Poland)

by Mirosław Skorbiłowicz and Marcin Sidoruk

Minerals 2025, 15(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/min15010008 - 25 Dec 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 654

Abstract

The condition of the aquatic environment, particularly in protected areas of high ecological value such as the Narew River, requires detailed monitoring to identify and minimise the impact of anthropogenic factors on the ecosystem. This study focused on the content of heavy metals in bottom sediments and macrophytes of the Narew River, emphasising the influence of human activities and natural factors on this ecologically valuable ecosystem. Pb, Cr, Zn, Cd, Fe, and Mn concentrations were analysed in sediment samples, and ten macrophyte species were collected at 11 sampling points along the river. A geochemical index (Igeo) and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to identify sources of contamination. The digested samples (sediments and plants) were analysed for Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Fe, and Mn using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) on an ICE 3500 Thermo Scientific spectrometer, with a measurement error below 5%, validated against certified reference materials. The study results indicated that most metals, including Ni, Cr, Co, Fe, and Mn, predominantly originate from natural geological processes. In contrast, Zn, Cd, Cu, and Pb were identified as being enriched due to anthropogenic activities. An analysis of macrophytes revealed varied patterns of metal accumulation, which correspond to the bioavailability of metals and their environmental concentrations. Comprehensive statistical analyses provided insights into the predominant sources of metal contamination, closely associated with industrial emissions, agricultural runoff, and transportation activities. The integration of sediment and macrophyte monitoring allowed for a thorough evaluation of the Narew River ecosystem, facilitating the identification of key pollution sources. These findings highlight the critical need for measures to mitigate anthropogenic contributions of heavy metals—particularly from industrial, agricultural, and transportation sectors—to safeguard the Narew River’s unique ecological and natural heritage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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24 pages, 10807 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pollution and Ecological Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Sediments Along the Fluvial-to-Marine Transition Zone of the Don River

by Elizaveta Konstantinova, Tatiana Minkina, Dina Nevidomskaya, Tatiana Bauer, Inna Zamulina, Elizaveta Latsynnik, Tamara Dudnikova, Rajendra Kumar Yadav, Marina Burachevskaya and Saglara Mandzhieva

Water 2024, 16(22), 3200; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16223200 - 7 Nov 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1182

Abstract

The quality of sediments in the mixing zone of river freshwater and marine saline water as an important geochemical barrier for potentially toxic elements (PTEs) remains poorly understood. This study aims to analyze the current pollution with PTEs and associated ecological risks in sediments of the Don River delta and the surrounding area of the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov (Russia). The PTE content was determined in fifty-four collected samples using the WDXRF and assessed using geochemical and ecotoxicological indicators. The source of Cr, Mn, Ni and Pb is mainly river runoff, and Cu, Zn and Cd are from a variety of anthropogenic sources. As shown by the assessment of the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), single pollution index (PI) and contamination factor (CF), these elements are the priority pollutants. According to these estimates, high and very high contamination of sediments in the estuarine zone of the Don River with Cd and Pb was detected in 72–94% and 2–57% of samples, respectively. However, environmental risks are determined almost exclusively by the level of Cd. Total contamination as assessed by the Nemerow pollution index (NPI), modified degree of contamination (mC_d) and metal pollution index (MPI) is of concern in 83–98% of the samples studied. The most heavily polluted sediments are in the vicinity of residential areas of the Taganrog Bay. Despite the lower average pollution levels of deltaic sediments, freshwater biota are exposed to higher potential toxic risks of adverse effects by PTE, particularly from Ni and Pb. Thus, the complex hydrological regime and uneven anthropogenic impact predetermine the geochemical state of the sediments of the estuarine zone of the Don River. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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15 pages, 9339 KiB

Open AccessArticle

High-Accuracy Image Segmentation Based on Hybrid Attention Mechanism for Sandstone Analysis

by Lanfang Dong, Hao Gui, Xiaolu Yu, Xinming Zhang and Mingyang Xu

Minerals 2024, 14(6), 544; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14060544 - 25 May 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1232

Abstract

Mineral image segmentation based on computer vision is vital to realize automatic mineral analysis. However, current image segmentation methods still cannot effectively solve the problem of sandstone grains that are adjoined and concealed by leaching processes, and the segmentation performance of small and irregular grains still needs to be improved. This investigation explores and designs a Mask R-CNN-based sandstone image segmentation model, including a hybrid attention mechanism, loss function construction, and receptive field enlargement. Simultaneously, we propose a high-quality sandstone dataset with abundant labels named SMISD to facilitate comprehensive training of the model. The experimental results show that the proposed segmentation model has excellent segmentation performance, effectively solving adhesion and overlap between adjacent grains without affecting the classification accuracy. The model has comparable performance to other models on the COCO dataset, and performs better on SMISD than others. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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12 pages, 8060 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Stable Isotopes in the Central Altai Mountainous Rivers as Indicator of Glacier Meltwater Fraction in Runoff

by Dmitrii Bantcev, Valeriia Rasputina, Anaiit Ovsepian, Semyon Griga, Anna Kozachek, Kirill Tchikhatchev and Dmitrii Ganyushkin

Water 2024, 16(9), 1288; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16091288 - 30 Apr 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1546

Abstract

We used stable water isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ²H) to identify the fractions of glacier meltwater and summer precipitation in the runoff in the Taldura River in the Altai mountains. The mean isotopic characteristics of glacier ice, snow, summer precipitation and river water were obtained. Using isotopic separation of hydrographs, we determined that glacier feeding completely prevails throughout the Taldura River in the middle of the ablation season. In general, the fraction of glacier meltwater in the Taldura River’s runoff in the ablation season varies from 80% to 95% depending on local weather conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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16 pages, 2442 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Extraction Kinetics of Rare Earth Elements from Ion-Adsorbed Underclays

by Priscilla Prem, Ward Burgess, Jon Yang and Circe Verba

Minerals 2023, 13(12), 1503; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13121503 - 30 Nov 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1950

Abstract

Citric acid has been identified as an environmentally sustainable organic acid capable of leaching up to ~30% of easily accessible REEs from underclay material. An analysis of the leaching profiles was performed to discern the reaction rates, extraction efficiencies, and potential leaching mechanisms of REEs and cations of interest from ion-adsorbed underclays. The initial leaching stage follows a slow intraparticle diffusion mechanism followed by a second stage controlled by a mixed diffusion regime. The leaching profiles of Ca and P were similar to those of REEs, suggesting that REEs are most likely derived from mineral surfaces such as hydroxyapatite or crandallite rather than predominately from underclays. Fitting to a modified diffusion control model found diffusion-controlled leaching to be the primary mechanism whereas non-diffusive mechanisms made up about 22% of the extracted REEs. Gangue cations associated with underclays had less non-diffusive leaching than REE species, indicating that their leaching kinetics may be dominated by diffusion from within the material or potentially from product layer formation. Fitting to Boyd plots further indicated that REEs were leached following intraparticle diffusion control. These results have important implications for the development of more efficient and sustainable methods for extracting REEs or critical minerals from alternative feedstocks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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18 pages, 2636 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancing Trace Metal Extraction from Wastewater: Magnetic Activated Carbon as a High-Performance Sorbent for Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry Analysis

by Sergio J. Abellán-Martín, David Villalgordo-Hernández, Miguel Ángel Aguirre, Enrique V. Ramos-Fernández, Javier Narciso and Antonio Canals

Separations 2023, 10(11), 563; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations10110563 - 10 Nov 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2696

Abstract

A new fast, sensitive, and environmentally friendly analytical method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in wastewater samples using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP OES). A preconcentration step using a magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction (MDSPE) technique with a new magnetic sorbent was performed. The new sorbent material was a carbon containing magnetic cobalt and nitrogen groups. This material was synthetized using controlled pyrolysis of a zeolitic imidazolate framework (i.e., ZIF-67). In order to optimize the experimental parameters that affect the MDSPE procedure, a multivariate optimization strategy, using Plackett–Burman and circumscribed central composite designs (CCD), was used. The method has been evaluated employing optimized experimental conditions (i.e., sample weight, 10 g; sample pH, 7.6; amount of sorbent, 10 mg; dispersive agent, vortex; complexing agent concentration, 0.5%; ionic concentration, 0%; eluent, HCl; eluent concentration, 0.5 M; eluent volume, 300 μL; elution time, 3 min and extraction time, 3 min) using external calibration. Limits of detection (LODs) in a range from 0.073 to 1.3 μg L⁻¹ were obtained, and the repeatability was evaluated at two different levels, resulting in relative standard deviations below 8% for both levels (n = 5). An increase in the sensitivity was observed due to the high enrichment factors (i.e., 3.2 to 13) obtained compared with direct ICP OES analysis. The method was also validated through carrying out recovery studies that employed a real wastewater sample and through the analysis of a certified reference material (ERM^®-CA713). The recovery values obtained with the real wastewater were between 94 and 108% and between 90 and 109% for the analysis of ERM^®-CA713, showing negligible matrix effects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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13 pages, 9763 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Concentration, Spatial Distribution, and Source Analysis of Trace Elements in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin and Its Two Tributaries

by Fangjing Xiao, Yuanzhao Zhao, Duo Bu and Qingying Zhang

Water 2023, 15(20), 3558; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15203558 - 12 Oct 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1768

Abstract

The Yarlung Zangbo River (YZR) is the longest plateau river in China and has famous tributaries, the Lhasa River and the Nianchu River. A total of 75 water samples were collected from the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YZRB) in this study to investigate the dissolved concentration, spatial distribution, and source of trace elements (Fe, V, Be, Ti, Mo, Se, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, Co, Mn, Cr, Ba, Tl, Pb, Hg, As, and Sb). The results indicate that only Cr and Tl contaminate water, while the other trace elements were in an unpolluted state. In addition, correlation analysis showed that there was a highly significant positive correlation between the concentrations of As, Sb, and Mo; there was also a highly significant positive correlation between the concentrations of Fe, Mn, Ti, Pb, Ni, Co, and Ba. The results of Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) showed that there were four sources of trace elements in the YZRB, including the resuspension and dissolution of sediments (16.283%), agricultural source (11.436%), lithological source (47.418%), and soil-forming rocks (6.374%). Cluster analysis combined with PMF normalized contribution analysis, which showed that the trace elements found in the YZR’s mainstream were predominantly influenced by the surrounding rocks composition. Meanwhile, both the discharge of mining wastewater and sediments were marked in the Lhasa River. Additionally, agricultural activities were the chief contributors to the trace elements in the Nianchu River. Furthermore, the entire basin was subjected to the influence of soil-forming rocks. This study comprehensively analyzed and evaluated the physicochemical properties of water, the spatial distribution, and the pollution degree, and performed source analysis of trace elements in the YZRB. This research provides a foundational reference for further investigation of the spatial distribution and origins of trace elements in the rivers of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment)

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Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Molecules molecules	4.2	7.4	1996	15.1 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
Separations separations	2.5	3.0	2014	15.1 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Sustainability sustainability	3.3	6.8	2009	19.7 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Water water	3.0	5.8	2009	17.5 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Minerals minerals	2.2	4.1	2011	18 Days	CHF 2400	Submit

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Analysis and Separations of Trace Elements in the Environment

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