Julia Lu

Ryerson University · Department of Chemistry and Biology

Two different sampling devices, quartz mini-sampler with quartz fiber filter (6 mm diameter) [1] and Teflon open- face sampler with quartz fiber filter (47mm diameter) were compared for collecting airborne particulate matter for the analysis of total filterable mercury (TFM) in the atmosphere. Thermal pyrolysis was used for sample preparation and C...

Depth profiles of particulate matter and elements in particulate matter collected from two typical resident buildings of a 7-storey building (B1) and a 24-storey building (B2) in the city of Xi'an, China were investigated. Physical characterization and chemical analysis of the settled dusts collected at different heights of B1 and B2 in April 2009...

Samples of settled dusts from roadsides and a 24-storey residential building in the city of Xi'an, China were collected between June, 2009 and September, 2010. Physical characterization and chemical analysis of these samples show that the daily average dust deposition rates at the residential building varied from 0.13 to 0.18 g m -2 day -1 (average...

Physical characterization and chemical analysis of settled dusts collected in Xi'an from November 2007 to December 2008 show that (1) dust deposition rates ranged from 14.6 to 350.4 g m(-2) yr(-1). The average deposition rate (76.7 g m(-2) yr(-1)) ranks the 11th out of 56 dust deposition rates observed throughout the world. The coal-burning power w...

This study identified sources of mercury (Hg) in downtown Toronto, Canada by analyzing gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), mercury associated with particles with sizes less than 2.5 microns (PHg < 2.5), and gaseous oxidized inorganic mercury (GOIM), commonly referred to as reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and air pollutants (CO, NOx, O3, PM2.5, SO2) co...

Reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) and particulate mercury (Hgp) concentrations in ambient air from a remote site at Changbai Mountain area in northeastern China were intermittently monitored from August 2005 to July 2006 totaling 93 days representing fall, winter-spring and summer season, respectively. Rainwater and snow samples were collected during...

Samples of surface water, soil, sediment and plants from the Xunyang Hg mining area in Shaanxi Province, China, were analyzed to assess the effects of the Hg mining activities on the environment. The results show that: (1) the mining activities are sources of Hg to the environment surrounding the mine; (2) the environment, especially riverbeds in t...

Real-time concentrations of atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and mercury associated with particles having sizes <2.5 microm (P-Hg < 2.5) were simultaneously measured in downtown Toronto from December 2003 to November 2004. The annual mean concentrations of GEM, P-Hg < 2.5 and RGM were 4.5 +/- 3.1 ng m(-3)...

An intensive field campaign for the measurement of total gaseous mercury (TGM) concentrations in ambient air was conducted in Changbai Mountain area from 5 August 2005 to 5 July 2006 using an automatic atmospheric mercury analyzer (Tekran 2537A), which was the first time TGM was monitored at a remote area in northeastern China. 99% of the hourly TG...

The mercury distribution and speciation in the water column were investigated from November 2003 to September 2004. The distribution and concentrations of total mercury (THg) and particulate mercury (PHg) showed that algae had a large capacity to bind mercury in late spring (e.g. in May). It is shown that dissolved gaseous mercury (DGM) concentrati...

Samples of water, soil, sediment, and pomegranate were collected from Xi'an and the Qinshihuang Mausoleum in Shaanxi Province, China to assess the effects of human activities on mercury in the environment. The total mercury concentrations ranged from 3.9 to 992.7ngL(-1) for the water samples, 40.6 to 2204.0ngg(-1) for the soil samples, 14.2 to 376....

Total particulate mercury (TPM) and reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) concentrations in ambient air on the eastern slope of the Mt. Gongga area, Sichuan Province, Southwestern China were monitored from 25 May, 2005 to 29 April, 2006. Simultaneously, Hg concentrations in rain samples were measured from January to December, 2006. The average TPM and RGM...

Long-term monitoring programs for measurement of atmospheric mercury concentrations are presently recognized as powerful tools for local, regional and global studies of atmospheric long-range transport processes, and they could also provide valuable information about the impact of emission controls on the global budget of atmospheric mercury, their...

During May 2005–June 2006, measurements of total gaseous mercury (TGM) concentrations were carried out by using a set of automatic atmospheric mercury vapor analyzer (Tekran 2537A) at Moxi base station (102°07′E, 29°40′N, 1640 m a.s.l.) of the Gongga alpine ecosystem observation and experiment station of Chinese academy of sciences (CAS) which belo...

Mary Lake, St. George Lake, and Philips Lake are located in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. These lakes are relatively small and have no direct inflow and outflow channels. Mercury (Hg) input to the lakes comes mainly from atmospheric deposition. Sediment cores from the points of the maximum lake depth and surface sediment samples from t...

National and international concern about the health effects and continued use of Pb, Cd, As and Hg as well as other metals has defined a need for improved estimates of the long-term risks to ecosystems and human health from metals released from mining, metallurgical and energy production activities. A research aircraft was used to determine the mic...

Continuous measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) in downtown Toronto were conducted from June 2001–February 2002. Ambient air was sampled at 3.5 and 7 m above ground in a canopy over a sidewalk. The quarter hourly mean concentrations were found at 2.39±2.05 ng m−3 (N=10,658) for the lower sampling level, and 2.57±2.39 ng m−3 (N=10,628) fo...

Based on the mercury distribution in soil, atmosphere and plant in seven sections beside the trunk road, some advances are obtained: (1) Mercury content of fuel oil of petrol station in Guilin is 3.66-9.74 ng/g, higher than that reported by other countries (0.7-3.2 ng/g). The higher the number of petrol, the lower the content. Number 90 petrol wide...

This paper describes a method for speciation of Hg associated with airborne particulate matter. This method uses a mini-sampler for sample collection and analysis, thermal desorption for separating Hg species, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for identification and quantification of Hg. Coal fly ash spiked with different Hg...

Total atmospheric mercury (TAM) is operationally defined as the sum of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized inorganic mercury (GOIM), which is also called reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and total filterable mercury (TFM). An annual weekly-integrated time-series of TFM concentrations in ambient air at Alert, Nunavut, Canada from March...

Total atmospheric mercury (TAM) is operationally defined as the sum of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized inorganic mercury (GOIM), which is also called reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and total filterable mercury (TFM). An annual weekly-integrated time-series of TFM concentrations in ambient air at Alert, Nunavut, Canada from March...

In this study, a diffusion-type device for generating gaseous mercuric chloride (HgCl(2)) was systematically evaluated and applied to validate the annular denuder method for sampling gaseous HgCl(2) species in a synthetic gas stream. The results show that it takes at least 48 h for the system to reach a steady-state condition after the diffusion ce...

Mercury -in the chemical/physical forms present in the biosphere -is a persistent, toxic, bioaccumulative pol-lutant that is dispersed throughout the environment on a global scale, mainly via the atmosphere. It is among the "heavy metals" for which the natural biogeochemical cy-cle has been perturbed by a wide range of human activi-ties, including...

Litter and green vegetation were collected in 7 locations in the contiguous United States, analyzed for mercury, and burned under controlled conditions at the US Forest Service Fire Science laboratory in Missoula, MT. Among fuels, leaf and 3needle litter contained the highest concentration (up to 71 ng/g on dry weight) of mercury. The combustion of...

The stability of nickel, lead, copper, cadmium, aluminium and zinc in the dissolved phase of environmental aqueous samples stored in common containers made of various materials was investigated. The samples were Rideau River surface water, rainwater and snow collected at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and had concentrations of the above metal...

A method for the analysis of exponential decay curves involving several kinetic components has been evaluated using simulated data. The method was originally developed for determination of fluorescence lifetimes and is applied here to data similar to those obtained in the measurement of rates of dissociation of metal–fulvic acid complexes in aqueou...

Rates of removal of metal ions from metal–fulvic acid complexes in aqueous solutions by Chelex-100 cation exchange resin have been measured using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS). When metal ions are complexed by the complexing agents, fulvic acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (each complexing agent is taken separately),...

A miniaturized device, which serves as both particulate trap and pyrolyzer for airborne particulate mercury species, is described. It has been used in combination with amalgamation/thermal desorption/cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry detection for the determination of total particulate mercury (TPM) associated with atmospheric aerosols. A...