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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Separation and Identification of Conventional Microplastics from Farmland Soils
Published on: March 21, 2025
Using Pb Isotope to Quantify the Effect of Various Sources on Multi-Metal Polluted soil in Guiyu
Shizhong Jiang1, Jie Luo2, Yuqun Ye1
1KLETOR Ministry of Education, Yangtze University, Wuhan, China.
Abstract:
Guiyu is known as one of the largest e-waste disposal and recycling sites in China, which suffers greatly from heavy metal pollution. By evaluating the concentrations and distribution of 21 metal elements with Principal Component Analyses (PCA), five principal components were identified, which accounted for 70.4% of the information of the initial data matrix, including one e-waste recycling source, two geological sources, one source of human activities and one ocean aerosol source. Among them, the source of human activities cannot be detailed only by PCA. By using Pb isotope, the unexplained source was judged as battery sludge. Combining 21 metallic and metalloid element datasets with Pb isotope concentrations is more accurate and effective to identify uncertain sources in soil.
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