A study of antimony complexed to soil-derived humic acids and inorganic antimony species along a Massachusetts highway

Antimony is a toxic metalloid and is often present in inorganic forms such as more toxic Sb(III) and less toxic Sb(V). Auto brake linings are major contributors to antimony emissions along heavily traveled highways. In this study the distribution of water extractable Sb(III) and Sb(V) species along a Massachusetts highway was investigated. Antimony complexed to roadside soil-derived humic acids was studied by ion chromatography (IC) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Thirty surface soil and soil core samples along route 116 in western Massachusetts were collected. Two soil-derived humic acids were extracted from the roadside soils. Elevated levels of nitric acid-extractable Sb (range: 2.9–24.9 µg/kg) and Pb (range: 10.4–2420 mg/kg) were found in the soil along the road and correlated well with highway traffic patterns. Sb(V) was the dominant species present in both surface and soil core samples, and is mostly confined to the top 20-cm layer of soil. HA mediated Sb(III) to Sb(V) oxidation was relatively fast and demonstrated pseudo-first order kinetics, where pseudo rate constant k is 3.033 h–1. Antimony bound to soil-derived humic acid molar mass fractions was identified.