Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Nov 3;49(21):12705-13. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03182. Epub 2015 Oct 15.
The metal indium is an example of an increasingly important material used in electronics and new energy technologies, whose environmental behavior and toxicity are poorly understood despite increasing evidence of detrimental health impacts and human-induced releases to the environment. In the present work, the history of indium deposition from the atmosphere is reconstructed from its depositional record in an ombrotrophic bog in Massachusetts. A novel freeze-coring technique is used to overcome coring difficulties posed by woody roots and peat compressibility, enabling retrieval of relatively undisturbed peat cores dating back more than a century. Results indicate that long-range atmospheric transport is a significant pathway for the transport of indium, with peak concentrations of 69 ppb and peak fluxes of 1.9 ng/cm2/yr. Atmospheric deposition to the bog began increasing in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and peaked in the early 1970s. A comparison of deposition data with industrial production and emissions estimates suggests that both coal combustion and the smelting of lead, zinc, copper, and tin sulfides are sources of indium to the atmosphere in this region. Deposition appears to have decreased considerably since the 1970s, potentially a visible effect of particulate emissions controls instated in North America during that decade.
金属铟是一种在电子和新能源技术中越来越重要的材料，尽管越来越多的证据表明其对健康有不利影响且人为向环境中释放，但人们对其环境行为和毒性仍知之甚少。在本研究中，从马萨诸塞州一个寡营养沼泽地的沉积记录中重建了大气中铟的沉积历史。采用了一种新颖的冷冻取芯技术，克服了木质根和泥炭压缩性带来的取芯困难，能够获取可追溯到一个多世纪前的相对未受干扰的泥炭芯。结果表明，远距离大气传输是铟传输的重要途径，铟的浓度峰值为 69 ppb，通量峰值为 1.9 ng/cm2/yr。大气向沼泽地的沉积始于 19 世纪末/20 世纪初，在 20 世纪 70 年代初达到峰值。将沉积数据与工业生产和排放估算进行比较表明，在该地区，煤炭燃烧以及铅、锌、铜和锡硫化物的冶炼都是大气中铟的来源。自 20 世纪 70 年代以来，沉积量似乎大幅减少，这可能是该十年期间北美颗粒物排放控制措施的明显效果。
