A Qualitative Study of Airborne Minerals and Associated Organic Compounds in Southeast of Cairo, Egypt

Kamal T. Hindy, Ashraf R. Baghdady, Fares M. Howari and Ahmed S. Abdelmaksoud
Additional contact information
Kamal T. Hindy: Air Pollution Research Department, Environmental Research Division, National Research Center, Giza 12622, Egypt
Ashraf R. Baghdady: Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Ain-Shams University, Cairo 1156, Egypt
Fares M. Howari: College of Natural and Health Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi 144534, UAE
Ahmed S. Abdelmaksoud: Air Pollution Research Department, Environmental Research Division, National Research Center, Giza 12622, Egypt

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: mineralogy; dust fall; polarizing microscope; infra-red spectroscopy; X-ray diffraction; organic compounds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/568/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/568/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:568-:d:137406

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().