If you are provided with a soil sample that came from the site of abandoned unde

Question

If you are provided with a soil sample that came from the site of abandoned underground storage tank belonging to an Exxon gas station that had ceased operation since the 1960s, describe how you would prove that the soil sample contained lead from the tetraethyllead fuel additive rather than from the inorganic form of lead that might be found naturally in soil. Assume that you work in a lab that is equipped with the instrumentation of AAS, GC-MS, and GC-AED (i.e. GC-MIP-MS) as well as all forms of sample preparation techniques. The absorption and emission wavelengths of lead are known for AAS and AED analyses. The three lead isotopes have masses and abundances as follows: 206 amu @24.1%, 207 amu@22.1%, 208 amu@52.4%.

Explanation / Answer

generally organic compounds of lead are tetraethyl lead and tetramethyl lead . during combustion theses compounds broke in to inorganic lead compounds such as carbonates, oxycarbonates and oxides while inorganic lead compounds are less toxic compared to organic compounds. we can use biosorption technique where biosorbent will absorb the metal present in the prepared lead solutions by varying adsorption time, biosorbent weight, rpm,biosorbent size and metal concentration etc and the adsorption value can be found using atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

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