Publications
External Beam PIGE for fluorine determination in atmospheric aerosol Air pollution measurements have been performed at Montelupo, a town
about 20 km west of Florence, characterised by the presence of a large number of ceramic
and glass factories just inside the inhabited area. Both filters collecting aerosols during
24 h and streaker filters with 1-h resolution capability have been analysed, using external
Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Proton-Induced Gamma-Ray Emission (PIGE)
simultaneously. The best operating conditions for getting quantitative information from the
PIGE analysis of fluorine in the external beam set-up have been investigated. The minimum
detection limit for the concentration of fluorine in air is in the order of 10 ng/m3.
Some specific results concerning fluorine determination in both the 24 and 1-h resolution
measurements are finally presented. While the average detected concentrations in air come
out to be well below the air quality limits, time episodes of relatively higher concentration
have been detected and thanks to the time correlation with the other elements the origin of
these pollution episodes can be hypothesised with a good degree of confidence.
F. Calastrinia, P. Del Carminea, F. Lucarellia,
P.A. Mandòa, P. Pratib,A. Zucchiattib
aDipartimento di Fisica dell'Università e I.N.F.N. di Firenze, Italy
bDipartimento di Fisica dell'Università e I.N.F.N. di Genova, Italy
Abstract