Mineralogical characterization of ambient fine/ultrafine particles emitted from Xuanwei C1 coal combustion

•Nano-minerals can be found in the particles emitted from Xuanwei coal combustion.•Nano-minerals were identified as quartz (SiO2) and gypsum (CaSO4).•Nano-Fe-containing minerals and nano-quartz could be hazards for the local residents.

Nano-quartz in Xuanwei coal, the uppermost Permian (C1) coal deposited in the northwest of Yuanan, China, has been regarded as one of factors which caused high lung cancer incidence in the local residents. However, mineralogical characterization of the fine/ultrafine particles emitted from Xuanwei coal combustion has not previously been studied. In this study, PM1 and ultrafine particles emitted from Xuanwei coal combustion were sampled. Chemical elements in the ambient particles were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and mineralogical characterization of these ambient particles was investigated using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM/EDX) and transmission electronic microscopy, coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (TEM/EDX). Our results showed that the size distribution of mineral particles from the coal combustion emissions ranged from 20 to 200 nm. Si-containing particles and Fe-containing particles accounted for 50.7% of the 150 individual particles measured, suggesting that these two types of particles were major minerals in the ambient particles generally. The nano-mineral particles were identified as quartz (SiO2) and gypsum (CaSO4) based on their crystal parameters and chemical elements. Additionally, there also existed unidentified nano-minerals. Armed with these data, toxicity assessments of the nano-minerals will be carried out in a future study.

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