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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Quantification of Polybutylene Adipate Terephthalate-based Micro- and Nano-plastics from Soil Using Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Published on: June 6, 2025
[Application of Pb stable isotope in source identification of soil pollutants]
Long-hua Wu1, Chang-bo Zhang, Hai-bo Zhang
1State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. lhwu@issas.ac.cn
Abstract:
Stable isotopes are key importance for tracing the source of heavy metals in soils. 11 surface soil samples were collected in a contaminated site according to geostatistical results, which had a series of concentrations from almost background value of Pb to more than 2 000 microg x g(-1). Pb stable isotope composition of the soil samples was analyzed to imply the sources. The results showed that 206Pb/207Pb, 208Pb/204Pb and 206Pb/204Pb of soil samples were all remarkably correlated linearly with reciprocals of Pb concentration, and 206Pb/204Pb had a significant positive linear correlation with 208Pb/204Pb, which was consistent with binary mixing model. It can be inferred that soil Pb mainly came from two sources, an anthropogenic source and soil parent material.
