engleski

Relationship between platinum group elements in air and meteorological parameters

Platinum group elements (PGE), in particular platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) play a significant role in the operation of automotive catalytic converters whose purpose is to reduce emissions of gaseous pollutants into the air. Hot exhaust gases passing through catalytic converters cause damage to these systems leading to emissions of Pt, Pd and Rh in the environment and increasing their levels in the air. Weekly PM10 samples were collected in 2017 at two monitoring stations (North - urban background and South - urban traffic) in Zagreb and mass concentrations of Pt, Pd and Rh were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Average annual mass concentrations for Pt, Pd and Rh were 0.373 pg m-3, 2.053 pg m-3 and 0.316 pg m-3 for the monitoring station North and 0.681 pg m-3, 3.843 pg m-3 and 0.574 pg m-3 for the monitoring station South, respectively. In this study the relationship between Pt, Pd and Rh mass concentrations and meteorological parameters, including air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, air pressure, wind direction and wind speed were analyzed. The wind roses on both monitoring stations point to a common source for all three measured metals. At the monitoring site North the pollution is connected with winds from north and northeast, while on the monitoring station South with winds from southeast.

Air Pollution ; Mass Concentration ; Palladium ; Platinum ; Rhodium ;

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