• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2008

The geochemical partitioning of arsenic in contaminated soils from a of wet land and tailing of the abandoned mine is examined. Chemical analysis and sequential extraction method by ultrasound-sonication extraction are applied to investigate the mobility and chemical existence conditions of arsenic as well as heavy metals. The results of this study showed that heavy metals concentration of tailings showed as a following order: Fe > As > Cu > Pb > Cr. The highest metal concentration was recognized in samples less than $63\;{\mu}m$ fraction in their particle sizes. Exchangeable and carbonate fractions in soil samples showed following Cu > As > Pb > Fe > Cr for tailings, and Fe > Pb > Cu > As > Cr for reservoir soils, respectively. Arsenic was bound as exchangeable fraction in tailings and its concentration appeared higher than those of the other metals. Thus, As can be easily dispersed into soil and water environments. The obtained results can be used to design soil remediation plan in the study area and require further detailed study to investigate severe environmental pollution of surface water as well as rivers with respect to heavy metals in terms of speciation analysis of toxic elements such as As and Cr.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2013

River bank filtration has been considered as a promising alternative water management scheme, in which groundwater is extracted from an aquifer near a river after infiltration of the river water into the aquifer, thereby improving and maintaining the quality of water recovered. Iron (Fe) associated with sediment in contact with groundwater and infiltrating surface water is an important factor in determining the quality of water recovered from the pumping wells in river bank filtration. This study reports the results of Fe speciation in the aquifer sediment samples collected from different depths at the river bank filtration site in Changwon, studied using four different chemical extraction methods, namely, ferrozine, oxalate, HCl, and DCB methods. Overall, the results show that Fe(II) as well as the total Fe content decreases with depth down to ~20 m and then increases further below. This trend is consistent with the redox characteristics suggested by visual observation. The silt/clay size fraction (${\phi}$ < 62.5 ${\mu}M$) has up to 2~10 times more Fe compared with the sand size fraction (62.5 ${\mu}M$ < ${\phi}$ < 2 mm), depending on the extraction method. Of the four extraction methods, DCB solution extracted the most Fe from the sediment samples. The amounts of Fe extracted by the different extraction methods can be a good indicator of the redox conditions along the depth of the aquifer.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.268-274
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• 2010

Emission of heavy metals as hazardous air pollutants has been focused with tightening regulatory limits due to their hazardousness. Measurements and characteristic investigations of heavy metals emitted from a commercial power plant burning anthracite coal have been carried out. The plant consists of a circulating fluidized bed combustor, a cyclone, a boiler and an electrostatic precipitator(ESP) in series. Dust and gaseous samples were collected to measure main heavy metals including gaseous mercury before ESP and at stack. Dust emissions as total particulate matter (TPM), PM-10 and PM-2.5 at inlet of ESP were very high with 23,274, 9,555 and $7,790mg/Sm^3$, respectively, as expected, which is much higher than those from pulverized coal power plants. However TPM at stack was less than $0.16mg/Sm^3$, due to high dust removal efficiency by ESP. Similarly heavy metals emission showed high collection efficiency across ESP. From particle size distribution and metal enrichment in sizes, several metal concentrations could be correlated with particle size showing more enrichment in smaller particles. Mercury unlike other solid metals behaved differently by emitting as gaseous state due to high volatility. Removal of mercury was quite less than other metals due to it's volatility, which was 68% only. Across ESP, speciation change of mercury from elemental to oxidized was clearly shown so that elemental mercury was half of total mercury at stack unlike other coal power plants which equipped wet a scrubber.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.335-341
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• 2019

Spirulina was cultured in Selenium solution and the total concentration was determined with isotope dilution technique. Low-molecular-weight-Selenium species for the water extract of Spirulina were separated and quantified with HPLC ICP/MS. Water extraction was used first and then protein enzyme (protease XIV) was used to digest and extract for the Se species in both water extract and residue. The total Se was $414.9{\pm}4.0{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$ and 77% existed in water extract while 22% remained in residue. Se species in supernatant was mostly inorganic selenate ($222.7{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$). After hydrolysis of protein, SeCys ($15.20{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) and SeMet ($12.13{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) were found. In residue, SeCys and SeMet were found with little inorganic Se. After protein hydrolysis of residue, more of Selenoamino acids SeCys ($9.35{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) and SeMet ($18.23{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) in addition to MeSeCys ($1.5{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) were found. It is thought that inorganic selenium is mostly adsorbed on the surface of spirulina and can be easily removed by a simple distilled water extraction while most of organo-seleniums are remained in residue.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-237
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• 2008

Arsenic has recently become of the most serious environmental concerns, and the worldwide regulation of arsenic fur drinking water has been reinforced. Arsenic contaminated groundwater and soil have been frequently revealed as well, and arsenic contamination and its treatment and measures have been domestically raised as one of the most important environmental issues. Arsenic behavior in geo-environment is principally affected by oxides and clay minerals, and particularly iron (oxy)hydroxides have been well known to be most effective in controlling arsenic. Among a number of iron (oxy)hydroxides, for this reason, 2-line ferrihydrite was selected in this study to investigate its effect on arsenic behavior. Adsorption of 2-line ferrihydrite was characterized and compared between As(III) and As(V) which are known to be the most ubiquitous species among arsenic forms in natural environment. Two-line ferrihydrite synthesized in the lab as the adsorbent of arsenic had $10\sim200$ nm for diameter, $247m^{2}/g$ for specific surface area, and 8.2 for pH of zero charge, and those representative properties of 2-line ferrihydrite appeared to be greatly suitable to be used as adsorbent of arsenic. The experimental results on equilibrium adsorption indicate that As(III) showed much stronger adsorption affinity onto 2-line ferrihydrite than As(V). In addition, the maximum adsorptions of As(III) and As(V) were observed at pH 7.0 and 2.0, respectively. In particular, the adsorption of As(III) did not show any difference between pH conditions, except for pH 12.2. On the contrary, the As(V) adsorption was remarkably decreased with increase in pH. The results obtained from the detailed experiments investigating pH effect on arsenic adsorption show that As(III) adsorption increased up to pH 8.0 and dramatically decreased above pH 9.2. In case of As(V), its adsorption steadily decreased with increase in pH. The reason the adsorption characteristics became totally different depending on arsenic species is attributed to the fact that chemical speciation of arsenic and surface charge of 2-line ferrihydrite are significantly affected by pH, and it is speculated that those composite phenomena cause the difference in adsorption between As(III) and As(V). From the view point of adsorption kinetics, adsorption of arsenic species onto 2-line ferrihydrite was investigated to be mostly completed within the duration of 2 hours. Among the kinetic models proposed so for, power function and elovich model were evaluated to be the most suitable ones which can simulate adsorption kinetics of two kinds of arsenic species onto 2-line ferrihydrite.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2015

X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analysis using X-ray absorption spectroscopy is being applied as a state-of-the-art method in a wide range of disciplines. This review article summarizes the overall procedure of XAFS analysis from the preparation of soil samples to the analysis of data in X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) region and extended Xray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) region. The previous studies on application of XANES and EXAFS techniques in environmental soil science field are discussed and classified them according to metal(loid)s (As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn). A significant number of previous studies of XAFS application in the environmental soil science field have focused on the identification of Pb chemical species in soil. Moreover, XANES and EXAFS techniques have been widely used to investigate the contamination source via identification of metal species. Similarly, these techniques were applied to identify the mechanisms of metal stabilization in soil after application of various amendments, phytoremediation, etc.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.358-367
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• 2003

In this research, first of all, the analytical methods for the determination of major elements in sediment have been developed with ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry). The analytical results of major elements (Al, Ca, K, Fe, Mg) with Cool ICP-MS were much better than those with normal ICP-MS. The analytical results were compared with those of NAA (Neutron Activation Analysis). NAA were a little superior to ICP-MS for the determination of major elements in sediment as a non-destructive trace analytical method. The analytical methods for the determination of minor elements (Cr, Ce, U, Co, Pb, As, Se) have been also developed with ICP-MS. The analytical results by standard calibration curve with ICP-MS were not accurate due to the matrix interferences. Thus, the internal standard method was applied, then the analytical results for minor elements with ICP-MS were greatly improved. The analytical results obtained by ICP-MS were compared with those obtained by NAA. It showed that the two analytical methods have great capabilities for the determination of minor elements in sediments. Accordingly, the NAA will play an important role in analysis of environment sample with complex matrix. ICP-MS also will play an important role because it has a great capability for the determination of Pb that could not be determined by NAA.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.121-131
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• 2021

Magnesium (Mg) present in carbonate minerals as impurities has been used as a geochemical proxy to infer the environmental conditions where the minerals precipitated. The reliability of Mg geochemical proxies requires fundamental understanding of Mg incorporation into minerals based on accurate speciation of Mg ²⁺ in the crystal structure, which is determined mainly by application of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). However, high uncertainties are involved in interpreting the XAS spectra of minerals containing trace amount of Mg ²⁺. Because density function theory (DFT) can predict an XAS spectrum for a crystal structure, DFT calculations can reduce the uncertainties in the interpretation of the XAS spectrum. In this study, we calculated ab initio Mg K-edge absorption spectra of Mg silicates and (hydr)oxides based on DFT and analyzed the correlation between the calculated spectra and Mg structural parameters. Our ab initio Mg K-edge absorption spectra well reproduced the key features of the experimental spectra. The absorption-edge positions of the calculated spectra showed the weak positive correlation with the average Mg-O bond distance or Mg effective coordination number. The current study shows that DFT-based core-level spectroscopy method is a powerful tool in providing standard Mg K-edge spectra of diverse Mg minerals and determining the Mg chemical species within carbonate minerals.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.397-410
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• 2018

When considering the long-term safety assessment of spent-nuclear fuel management, americium is one of the most radio-toxic actinides. Although spectroscopic methods are widely used for the study of actinide chemistry, application of those methods to americium chemistry has been limited. Herein, we purified $^{241}Am$ to obtain a highly pure stock solution required for spectroscopic studies. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of purified $^{241}Am$ were carried out using liquid scintillation counting, and gamma and alpha radiation spectrometry. Highly sensitive absorption spectrometry coupled with a liquid waveguide capillary cell and time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy were employed for the study of Am(III) hydrolysis and oxalate (Ox) complexation. $Am^{3+}$ ions under acidic conditions exhibit maximum absorbance at 503 nm, with a molar absorption coefficient of $424{\pm}8cm^{-1}{\cdot}M^{-1}$. $Am(OH)_3(s)$ colloidal particles formed under near neutral pH conditions were identified by monitoring the absorbance at around 506-507 nm. The formation of ${Am(Ox)_3}^{3-}$ was detected by red-shifts of the absorption and luminescence spectra of 4 and 5 nm, respectively. In addition, considerable enhancements of the luminescence intensities were observed. The luminescence lifetime of ${Am(Ox)_3}^{3-}$ increased from 23 to 56 ns, which indicates that approximately six water molecules are replaced by carboxylate ligands in the inner-sphere of the Am(III). These results suggest that ${Am(Ox)_3}^{3-}$ is formed through the bidentate coordination of the oxalate ligands.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.250-257
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• 1988

The study was intended to know any relations between the rice tolerance to bensulfuron and varietal speciation in seed protein composition or any enzymatical allelies with or without chemical treatment. Rice varieties used were UCP-28, Chinsurah Boro II, Fukunohama, Fadehpur-2, IR 14252-13-2-2-5 as the tolerant group, and HP 93(3) FA, HP94(9) FA, Padilabou Alumbis, KH-17854, and IR 1846-2841-1 as the susceptible, respectively. Electrophoretic methods used were SDS-PAGE for seed protein, 7% PAGE for isozymes (acid phosphatase, peroxidase, malate dehydrogenase, and esterase from rice seedling) and variation in isoenzyme profiles (malate dehydrogenase, peroxidase, and esterase) as affected by different concentrations of bensulfuron(0, $10^{-6}$, $10^{-5}$ and $3{\times}10^{-5}M$) was also studied. The results are summarized as follows. -Among 16 bands separated in seed proteins, two different rice groups selected in terms of tolerance to bensulfuron were clustered in dissimilarity, which was based on relatively larger area in whole peaks and higher activities in N, O, P bands for the tolerant group. -Among isozymes obtained from rice seedlings without chemical treatments, the following specificities were obtained. The tolerant varieties had the relatively higher activity in D band out of 4 peroxidase bands. Malate dehydrogenase was separated into 3 bands and only tolerant varieties had A band and higher activities in Band C bands. Esterase was separated into 3-4 bands with higher activities in A and B bands for tolerant varieties. There were one major band accompanied by 2-3 minor bands for acid phosphatase in which only tolerant varieties had the B band. -The effect of Bensulfuron concentration on the isozyme activities showed that the activity of C band in peroxidase was not present in tolerant varieties which was contrary to the increased activities in susceptible varieties. However, D band was gradually disappeared only in susceptible varieties as the concentration of bensulfuron was increased. For malate dehydrogenase in the susceptible varieties, major bands D, E and F kept consistantly higher activities while minor bands A, B and C disappeared sensitively. Among 5 bands of esterase separated, D band was present only in the tolerant varieties while E band only in the susceptible. The activities in A, C, E bands were sharply decreased in the susceptible varieties as the concentration of bensulfuron was increased.