• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.389-396
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• 1991

The pre-concentration and determination of ultratrace arsenic in water samples was studied by the precipitate flotation technique. The arsenic in 1.0l of water sample, in which all suspended materials were filtered out, was coprecipitated together with La(OH)$_3$ precipitates at pH 8.5${\pm}$0.1. After the precipitate was made to be hydrophobic by adding mixed surfactant of 1 : 8 mole ratio of sodium oleate and sodium dodecyl sulfate, it was floated with the aid of tiny bubbles of nitrogen gas in a flotation cell. The floated precipitate was quantitatively collected on a micropore glass filter by the suction, dissolved with small volume of 1.0M sulfuric acid, and accurately diluted to 25.00ml with a de-ionized water. Total arsenic was spectrophotometrically determinated by forming silver diethyldithiocarbamate complex of arsine generated from arsenic in the concentrated solution. The calibration curve was linear up to 20ng/ml in the original solution. Analytical results showed that contents of arsenic in a campus wastewater and a river water were 8.2ng/ml and l.0ng/ml, respectively, and their recoveries were 93${\%}$ and 90${\%}$ in water samples which a given amount of arsenic was added into. From above result, it could be concluded that this method was applicable to the determination of arsenic in various kinds of water at low ng/ml levels.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.30-40
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• 2021

The present study investigates the bioleaching efficiencies of arsenic via contact and non-contact mechanisms. The attachment of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans was restricted by a partition system comprising a semi-permeable membrane with a molecular weight cutoff of 12-14 kDa. The results were compared for two arsenic concentrations in the system (1.0% and 0.5% w/v) to maintain a homogeneous system. The overall bacterial performance was monitored by comparing total arsenic and iron concentrations, Fe ion speciation, pH, and solution redox potentials in flask bioleaching experiments over a period of 10 d. Our results indicated that bacterial attachment could increase arsenic extraction efficiency from 20.0% to 44.9% at 1.0 % solid concentrations. These findings suggest that the bacterial contact mechanism greatly influences arsenic bioleaching from mine tailings. Therefore, systems involving two-step or non-contact bioleaching are less effective than those involving one-step or contact bioleaching for the efficient extraction of arsenic from mine tailings.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

FeS, as a natural reduced iron mineral, has been recognized to be a viable reactive material for As(III) sequestration in natural and engineered systems. In this study, FeS-coated sand packed columns were tested to evaluate the As(III) removal capacities under anaerobic conditions at pH 5, 7 and 9. The column obtained As(III) removal capacity was then compared with the capacity result obtained from batch reactors. In the comparison, two different approaches were used. The first approach was used the total As(III) removal capacity which method was proved to be useful for interpreting pH 5 system. The second approach was used to consider sorption non-linearity and proved to be useful for interpreting the pH 9. The results demonstrated that a mechanistic understanding of the different removal processes at different pH conditions is important to interpret the column experimental results. At pH 5, where the precipitation of arsenic sulfide plays the major role in the removal of arsenic, the column shows a greater removal efficiency than the batch system due to the continuous dissolution of sulfide and precipitation of arsenic sulfide. At pH 9, where adsorption mainly governs the arsenic removal, the sorption nonlinearity should be considered in the estimation of the column capacity. This study highlighted the importance of understanding reaction mechanism to predict column performance using batch-obtained experimental results.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.497-508
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate correlations between concentrations of extractable Arsenic (As) with varying chemical solutions (0.1 M $Ca(NO_3)_2$, 0.1 M $(NH_4)2HPO_4$, 0.5 M EDTA, Mehlich 3, and 0.5 M $NaHCO_3$) and those of As in crops, and then to seek the most suitable soil extraction method for predicting the potential of As uptake in crops cultivated in soils contaminated with As. For a mesocosm experiment, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), soybean (Glycine max L.), and rice (Oryza sativa L.) were cultivated for three months in pots containing soils taken from the arable areas near abandoned mines in Korea. Following the cultivation, soil pH and DOC significantly increased by treatments of lime and lime plus compost, respectively, while insignificant influences in changing total and all extractable As concentrations were found in all soils. Arsenic concentration in edible part of all crops considerably depended on the extractable As concentration in the soils, particularly with Mehlich 3. All extractable As concentrations in the soils of C. annuum and G. max were significantly correlated with As concentration in their edible parts. For O. sativa, the extractable concentrations of Mehlich 3 ($R^2$: 0.18 at p: 0.006) and EDTA ($R^2$: 0.11 at p: 0.036) showed only marked relationships with As concentration in the edible part. These results may indicate that the Mehlich 3 and EDTA are soil extractants to determine phytoavailable As in soil that provide better prediction for As transfer from soil to crop.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.584-588
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• 2016

The current study was carried out to investigate total and inorganic arsenic (As) concentrations in 112 rice samples (husked rice and polished rice) grown around the abandoned mining areas and to estimate the potential health risk through dietary intake of rice in Korea. Mean concentrations of total As in husked rice and polished rice were 0.23 and $0.13mg\;kg^{-1}$, respectively. Also, average inorganic As concentrations in husked rice and polished rice were 0.09 and $0.05mg\;kg^{-1}$, respectively. These levels are lower than the standard guideline value ($0.2mg\;kg^{-1}$) for inorganic As in polished rice recommended by Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Codex. For health risk assessment, the average values of cancer risk probability was $5.7{\times}10^{-5}$ which was less than the acceptable cancer risk of $10^{-6}{\sim}10^{-4}$ for regulatory purpose. Also, hazard quotient values were lower than 1.0. Therefore, these results demonstrated that human exposure to inorganic As through dietary intake of rice collected from abandoned mining areas might not cause adverse health effects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.878-883
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• 2006

Removal efficiency of As(III) was investigated with a pilot-scale filtration system packed with an equal amount(each 21.5 kg) of manganese-coated sand(MCS) in the bottom and iron-coated sand(ICS) in the top. Height and diameter of the used column was 200 cm and 15 cm, respectively. The As(III) solution was introduced into the bottom of the filtration system with a peristaltic pump at a speed of $5{\times}10^{-3}$ cm/s over 148 days. Breakthrough of total arsenic in the mid-sampling position(end of the MCS bed) and final-sampling position(end of the ICS bed) was started after 18 and 44 days, respectively, and then showed a complete breakthrough after 148 days. Although the breakthrough of total arsenic in the mid-sampling position was started after 18 days, the concentration of As(III) in this effluent was below 50 ppb up to 61 days. This result indicates that MCS has a sufficient oxidizing capacity to As(III) and can oxidize 92 mg of As(III) with 1 kg of MCS up to 61 days. When a complete breakthrough of total arsenic occurred, the removed total arsenic by MCS was calculated as 79.0 mg with 1 kg MCS. As variation of head loss is small at each sampling position over the entire reaction time, it was possible to operate the filtration system with ICS and MCS for a long time without a significant head loss.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.6 s.181
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• pp.689-697
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• 2006

Distribution and speciation of arsenic in water resources was investigated in the Ulsan mine area. In 62% of uoundwater samples from the mine area, total As concentrations exceeded 0.05 mg/l, the Korean Drinking Water Standard. As(V) was the major type in groundwater with minor As(III). Arsenic species appeared to be in transition stages following redox changes after exposure to the air through the monitoring wells. In areas around the mine, the mine and Cheongog spring appeared to be the sources of arsenic contamination of water resources. The spring showed 0.345 mg/1-As, as much as seven times of the Korean standard. Groundwater and stream samples showed As-concentrations greater than 0.05 mg/l in 30% and 33% samples, respectively, and 60 and 67% of samples exceeded 0.01 mg/l of WHO guideline, respectively. Again, As(V) was a dominant species, however, several samples had As(III) in appreciable levels. In one stream sample, organic species including DMA and AsB were detected in low levels, probably resulted from transformation or related biogeochemical processes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.621-627
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• 2008

In this study, a technique of speciation and determination of the trace inorganic arsenic(As(III) and As(V)) in water sample using HPLC-DRC-ICP-MS has been developed. Isocratic mobile phase of 10 mM ammonium nitrate and 10 mM ammonium phosphate monobasic was used and methanol(5 v/v%) was used as flushing solvent. Selection of the best flow rate of reaction gas, O$_2$, and optimization of the parameters such as pH and flow rate of mobile phase, and injection volume of sample for the separation and detection of arsenic species were carried out. The oxygen flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, pH of 9.4 and flow rate of 1.5 mL/min of mobile phase, and injection volume of sample of 100 $\mu$L were found to be the best parameters for the speciation and determination of arsenic species. The analytical features of the method were detection limit 0.10 and 0.08 $\mu$g/L, precision(RSD) 4.3% and 3.6%, and recovery 95.2% and 96.4% for As(III) and As(V), respectively. Analysis time was 4 minutes per sample. Linear calibration graphs with r$^2$ = 0.998 were obtained for both As(III) and As(V). Speciation analysis of arsenic species in the raw water samples collected from the tributary streams to Han River and main stream of Paldnag were performed by the proposed method. The concentrations of As(III) ranged from 0.10 to 0.22 $\mu$g/L and As(V) concentrations ranged from 0.44 to 1.19 $\mu$g/L, and 93.5% of total arsenic was found to be As(V).

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.631-638
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of zerovalent iron and basic oxygen furnace slag on arsenic stabilization in soils. For this, arsenic (V) contaminated soil and roxarsone contaminated soil were incubated after incorporation with zerovalent iron (ZVI) or basic oxygen furnace slage (BOFS) at four different levels (0%, 1%, 3%, and 5%) for 30 days and then the residual concentrations of arsenic were analysed following extraction with aqua reqia, 1N HCl and 0.01 M $CaCl_2$. The total concentration of arsenic was 2,285 mg/kg in the As(V) contaminated soil and 6.5 mg/kg in the roxarsone contaminated soil. 1 N HCl extractable arsenic concentration in the As(V) contaminated soil was initially 1,351 mg/kg and this was significantly declined by 713~1,034 mg/kg following incubation with ZVI while BOFS treatment showed no effect on the stabilization of inorganic arsenate except 5% treatment which showed around 100 mg/kg reduction in 1N HCl extractable arsenic. Similarly, in the roxarsone contaminated soil 1N HCl extractable concentration of arsenic was reduced from 3.13 mg/kg to 0.69 mg/kg with ZVI treatment increased from 1% to 5% while BOFS treatment did not lead to any statistically significant reduction. Available (0.01M $CaCl_2$ extractable) arsenic was initially 0.85 mg/kg in the As(V) contaminated soil and this declined by 0.79 mg/kg following incorporation with 5% ZVI, which accounted for more than 90% of the available As in the control. When As(V)-contaminated soil was treated with BOFS, the available arsenic was increased due to competing effect of the phosphate originated from BOFS with arsenate for the adsorption sites. For the roxarsone contaminated soil, the greater the treatment of ZVI or BOFS, the lower the available arsenic concentration although it was still higher than that of the control.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.518-524
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• 2014

Heavy metal pollution in agricultural field near at the abandoned metal mines has been a critical issue in Korea. In particular, bioaccumulation in plants can have detrimental effect on human health. Main objective of this research was to examine arsenic (As) concentration in soil with varied extraction methods and to determine bioaccumulation and biological transfer factor in different crops. Results showed that bioaccumulation ratio of As for total contents in soil was ordered leafy and stem vegetables (1.19%) > fruit bearing vegetables (0.79%) > pulses (0.40%) > root vegetables (0.36%) with different crop species. Among 6 different extraction methods, all of extraction methods showed high correlation ($R^2=0.87-0.97$) except DTPA ($R^2=0.25$) when comparing As concentration in soil extracted with different extractants and As concentration in each crops. Calculated biological transfer factor was ranged 0.002-0.018 depending on crop species. Overall, concentration of As in crops can be varied and best management practice for minimizing bioaccumulation of As should be considered depending on crop species.