Rare Earth Elements and Other Metals in Atmospheric Particulate Matter in the Western Part of The Netherlands

Atmospheric particulate matter (APM) wascollected in Delft, in the western part of theNetherlands, on micro-quartz glass fibre filters fromJuly to September, 1997. The concentrations of rareearth elements (REE) and 9 other metals (Cd, Pb, Fe,V, Ti, Mg, Ca, Na and Al) in the APM were determinedby Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry(ICP-MS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-AtomicEmission Spectrometry (ICP-AES). The total REE(ΣREE) concentration, light-REE (LREE, includingSc, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Eu) concentration, andheavy-REE (HREE, including Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb,Lu and Y) concentrations were 0.22–33.0; 0.21–30.68;and 0.01–2.32 ng m-3, respectively. The ratio ofLREE to HREE ranged from 6.37 to 33.58; the ratio ofLREE to ΣREE was 0.86–0.97, the average being 0.90; and the ratio of HREE to ΣREE was0.03–0.14, with an average of 0.1. The variation ofthe ratio of LREE to ΣREE and HREE to ΣREEwas small. The La to Ce, and La to Sm ratios variedconsiderably i.e. 0.5–4.38 and 4.33–71.42respectively. The variation in concentrations of REEand other metals observed was dependent upon the winddirection and consequently on prevailingmeteorological conditions and anthropogenic activity.