Concentrations of anthropogenic Pt and Pd in urban roadside soils in Xuzhou, China

The potential accumulation of platinum group elements (PGE) in the environment from automobile catalysts is high in urban areas, with the major sinks being roadside soils. Therefore, this investigation presented the detailed study on characterized concentrations of Pt and Pd and their enrichment ratios in urban roadside soils in Xuzhou, China in March 2003. Data from 21 roadside topsoil samples analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) illustrated that the medians of concentrations of Pt and Pd were 2.9 and 2.8 ng/g, respectively. Hierarchical clustering analysis indicated that Pt and Pd were mainly from traffic emissions. Compared to unpolluted soils, computation of Pt and Pd enrichment ratios suggested that the Xuzhou roadside soils had average enrichment factors of 3.53 for Pt (in range of 1.22–5.73) and of 3.37 for Pd (in range of 1.35–4.46). Lower Pt/Pd ratios (in range of 0.35–2.86) in relation to similar studies in other countries were observed, which might be due to the different Pt/Pd ratios in Chinese automobile catalytic converters. Moreover, fine fraction (<250 μm) contained higher concentrations of Pt and Pd compared to the coarse fraction (250–500 μmm).