Contamination Levels and Source Analysis of Heavy Metals in the Finer Particles of Urban Road Dust from Xi'an, China

Abstract

Road dust samples were collected from four different functional areas in Xi'an City, i.e., an educational area, a residential area, a park area, and a traffic area, to study the influence of intensive human activities on local urban environmental quality. The contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Co, V, Mn, and Ni in the smaller than 63 μm road dust particles were determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and the pollution levels of these metals were assessed by a geoaccumulation index and a pollution loading index. The possible sources of heavy metals measured in the dusts were identified by multivariate statistical analysis methods, including correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis, and the contributions of each source to heavy metals in the dusts were apportioned by a principal component analysis-multiple linear regression receptor model. The results showed that the contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Co, V, Mn, and Ni in the smaller than 63 μm road dust particles of urban road dust from Xi'an ranged 14.2-96.9, 23.5-206.1, 20.0-899.4, 122.7-262.8, 7.9-14.2, 48.7-71.5, 274.0-448.9, and 22.4-62.5 mg·kg-1, respectively, with averages of 46.6, 97.4, 169.2, 177.5, 9.8, 57.1, 337.6, and 29.3 mg·kg-1. Compared to the element background values of Shaanxi soil, the finer particles of road dust from Xi'an had elevated contents of Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cr. The finer particles of road dust from Xi'an were unpolluted by Co, V, Mn, and Ni; unpolluted to moderately polluted by Cr, Cu, and Zn; and moderately polluted by Pb. The assessment results of comprehensive pollution indicated that the pollution levels of the heavy metals in the dusts were mainly unpolluted to moderately polluted. The multivariate statistical analysis results displayed that Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn had significant positive correlation. These metals belong to a principal component and a cluster, whereas Mn, Ni, V, and Co belong to another principal component and cluster and have significant positive correlation. Considering the content characteristics of heavy metals in the dusts, these results illustrated that two kinds of sources for the heavy metals studied existed for the finer particles of road dust from Xi'an, i.e., Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cr mainly originated from traffic sources, whereas V, Co, Mn, and Ni were mainly from natural sources. The contributions of traffic sources and natural sources to the heavy metals in the finer particles of the road dust from Xi'an were respectively 56.7% and 43.3%.