Journal Article

Physical and chemical properties of dust in the Pre-Aral region of Uzbekistan

Wei, Qingzhu, Ghali, Mohsen, Karazhanov, Smagul, Ivanitskaya, Evgenia, Bazarbayev, Rustam, Yakubov, Komiljon, Allaniyazov, Atabek, Zeng, Guanggen, Qian, Hongqiang, Zhou, Biao, Mamedov, Damir

2022

Overview

The aim of this work is study of physical and chemical properties of dust of the Pre-Aral region of Uzbekistan such as Karakalpakstan and Khorezm that are located near the three deserts such as the Aralkum, Karakum, and Kyzylkum. The dust particles fell on glass have been collected in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm and studied systematically by employing wide range of methods. Particle volume vs size distribution has been measured with maximum around 600 nm and ~ 10 µm. The major and minor constituent materials present in the dust have been studied systematically by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray diffraction, and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Main characteristic absorption bands corresponding to Si–O, Si–O-Si bonding in quartz and Fe–O bonds in hematite Fe 2 O 3 have been identified by infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Quartz, hematite, lime, corundum, magnesia, and several other trace minerals have been identified in the dust particles. X-ray diffraction peaks corresponding to quartz, hematite, and corundum are sharp and are found to be more crystalline with some level of disorder. Analysis of the particle size and crystallinity on human being has been performed: disordered or crystalline quartz can create the lung disease; the particles in the size of 0.5–0.7 µm may produce diseases such as chronic silicosis, silicosis, and silica tuberculosis whereas hematite might create lung disease. Dust particles worsen optical transmittance of glass of the panels. Graphical abstract

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: absorption / Absorption spectra / Aquatic Pollution / Chemical properties / Corundum / Crystal structure / Crystallinity / Dust / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecotoxicology / Emission spectroscopy / energy-dispersive X-ray analysis / Environment / Environmental Chemistry / Environmental Health / Environmental science / Ferric oxide / Fluorescence spectroscopy / glass / Hematite / Human performance / humans / Inductively coupled plasma / Infrared spectroscopy / Light penetration / Lung diseases / magnesium oxide / Minerals / Optical emission spectroscopy / particle size / Quartz / Raman spectroscopy / Research Article / respiratory tract diseases / Silica / Silicon / Silicosis / Size distribution / Spectrum analysis / Trace minerals / transmittance / Tuberculosis / Uzbekistan / Waste Water Technology / Water Management / Water Pollution Control / X-ray diffraction / X-ray fluorescence / X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy