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Article
A qualitative study of airborne minerals and associated organic compounds in southeast of Cairo, Egypt
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Kamal T. Hindy, National Research Centre
  • Ashraf R. Baghdady, Ain Shams University
  • Fares M. Howari, Zayed University
  • Ahmed S. Abdelmaksoud, National Research Centre
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2018
Abstract

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This study is concerned with the identification of the mineralogical composition of dust fall samples collected from southeast of Cairo, Egypt. The mineralogical identification was conducted by means of the polarizing microscope, infra-red spectroscopy (IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The relationship between the mineralogical composition of dust fall samples and 10 rock samples from the surrounding terrains were investigated. The major mineralogical species existing in the atmosphere of the study area are: carbonates mainly in the form of calcite in addition to the appearance of the dolomite form in traces overall the study area, but with considerable observation in the southern region; quartz which is less than calcite in its abundance; sulphates in the form of gypsum which may also be present as traces in the anhydrite form. Trace constitution of feldspars; clay minerals in the form of kaolinite, illite, and montimorillonite; and halite are also observable in the same samples. Organic compounds are present in the atmosphere of the area mainly as alkanes with presence of traces of phosphines. This study qualitatively shows the mineralogy of air particulate over rock processing area and the obtained results indicates that the main pollution source in the study area is the industrial activities with minor contribution of the natural sources, especially erosion and dust carried by winds from the surrounding terrains Cairo in the southern direction. This study provides useful results for the contribution of rock processing activities to the mineral composition of atmospheric particulates.

Publisher
MDPI AG
Disciplines
Keywords
  • Dust fall,
  • Infra-red spectroscopy,
  • Mineralogy,
  • Organic compounds,
  • Polarizing microscope,
  • X-ray diffraction
Scopus ID
85044337965
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Indexed in Scopus
Yes
Open Access
Yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series
Citation Information
Kamal T. Hindy, Ashraf R. Baghdady, Fares M. Howari and Ahmed S. Abdelmaksoud. "A qualitative study of airborne minerals and associated organic compounds in southeast of Cairo, Egypt" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 15 Iss. 4 (2018) p. 568 ISSN: <a href="https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/issn/1660-4601" target="_blank">1660-4601</a>
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/fares-howari/16/