The dissolution of natural and artificial dusts in glutamic acid

Abstract

This article describes the characteristics of natural dusts, industrial dusts, and artificial dusts, such as mineral phases, chemical components, morphological observation and size. Quartz and calcite are the main phases of natural dusts and industrial dusts with high SiO2 and CaO and low K2O and Na2O in the chemical composition. The dissolution and electrochemical action of dusts in glutamic acid liquor at the simulated human body temperature (37 °C) in 32 h was investigated. The potential harm that the dust could lead to in body glutamic acid acidic environment, namely biological activity, is of great importance for revealing the human toxicological mechanism. The changes of pH values and electric conductivity of suspension of those dusts were similar, increased slowly in the first 8 h, and then the pH values increased rapidly. The total amount of dissolved ions of K, Ca, Na, and Mg was 35.4 to 429 mg/kg, particularly Ca was maximal of 20 to 334 mg/kg. The total amount of dissolved ions of Fe, Zn, Mn, Pb, and Ba was 0.18 to 5.59 mg/kg and in Al and Si was 3.0 to 21.7 mg/kg. The relative solubility order of dusts in glutamic acid is wollastonite > serpentine > sepiolite, the cement plant industrial dusts > natural dusts > power plant industrial dusts. The wollastonite and cement plant industrial dusts have the highest solubility, which also have high content of CaO; this shows that there are a poorer corrosion-resisting ability and lower bio-resistibility. Sepiolite and power plant industrial dusts have lowest solubility, which also have high content of SiO2; this shows that there are a higher corrosion-resisting ability and stronger bio-resistibility.