Mössbauer study of contaminated soils by industrial activity in Paramonga city, Region Lima Provinces, Peru

In this work we characterize soils from the Paramonga city, Region Lima Provinces in Peru, which are contaminated by residual chemicals (Br, As and Sr) from sugar and paper industry in the city. Four samples were collected, labelled as S1, S2, S3 and S4 and analized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and Mössbauer spectroscopy. For all the samples, the chemical analysis by EDXRF revealed the presence of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, K, Br, Sr. The XRD detected the presence of quartz as principal phase and copper sulfide and potassium magnesium as secondary phases. The Mössbauer spectra at room temperature (RT) for all the samples exhibit sextets which reveal the presence of an iron oxide or hydroxide. The fitting Mössbauer for both samples S1 and S4 have three doublets corresponding to iron in paramagnetic phases and a magnetic component of around 35.50 T corresponding to goethite, α-FeOOH. Sample S2 have two magnetic phases with internal fields of 37 T and 34.6 T which correspond to the goethite and other incorporated element in the structure. The sample S3 have three magnetic fields of H1 = 36.8 T, H2 = 33.6 T and H3 = 34.8 T which correspond to hydroxide iron, pyrrhotite and goethite respectively. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.