Open AccessFractionation of Rare Earth Elements in Surface Sediment of Peninsular Malaysia Coastal Waters
Author(s) -
Mohd. Fuad,
F. Fikriah,
B. Y. Kamaruzzaman,
Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman,
N.A. Nik Nurizni
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian journal of chemistry/asian journal of chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.145
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 0975-427X
pISSN - 0970-7077
DOI - 10.14233/ajchem.2021.22974
Subject(s) - environmental chemistry , sediment , fractionation , chemistry , enrichment factor , arsenic , inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry , cadmium , rare earth , dry weight , manganese , contamination , mineralogy , geology , mass spectrometry , heavy metals , ecology , geomorphology , botany , organic chemistry , chromatography , biology
The environmental fate of rare earth elements (REEs) in the Malaysian environment is limitedly known;however, industrial emission is increasing. This study focused on the REE assessment of the surfacesediments obtained from rocky shore ecosystems along the Peninsular Malaysia coastal waters, ondeliberating interspatial variability, and on describing their partitioning. Samples were treated withthe Teflon Bomb technique, and the concentration of 14 natural REEs was measured through inductivelycoupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Through quality control practices, the results wereverified by employing a standard reference material BCR 667. The tendency of REE distribution wasthe most mutual property of particular places worldwide and in Malaysia. Among REEs present insediment, strong correlations were observed, which indicated REEs they behave coherently to eachother in different processes of geochemical fractionation. The contaminant metals, namely manganese,arsenic, cadmium and copper, were strongly correlated with REEs (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05); hence,these metals may be nonanthropogenic in origin because REEs are geogenic in origin. The enrichmentfactor (EF) values of the comparative results were divided by the region-specified deficiency to minimalenrichment in all the regions, except in the east coast region, which presented considerable enrichment,suggesting a probability of discharge of the anthropogenic effluent. The results of the analysisnormalized to chondrite presented patterns of low atomic weight rare earth elements (LREEs)enrichment, gradual downward pattern and depletion through high atomic weight rare earth elements(HREEs) concentrations.