Quantification of Pt, Pd, and Rh in Environmental Materials

The problems of the presence of PGMs in various environmental compartments and human exposure to them have been discussed in numerous review articles and books. [2-8, 10-13, 189]. We describe analytical approaches to the evaluation of the content of Pt, Pd, and Rh in plants, airborne particles and dusts, and soils and sediments, which are the most often examined materials for such purposes. 

Evaluation of the content of PGMs in airborne particles and dusts is important because of the possibility of their inhalation and accumulation in human lungs. Nanoparticles from autocatalysts can be transported into various parts of the environment (waters, plants, soils, and sediments) and transformed into more bioavailable species. There are data on the higher solubility of platinum from tunnel dusts than from inorganic species emitted from converters [30]. Distribution and accumulation of metals depend on traffic density, distance from the road, and meteorological conditions (wind, rain). The age of an autocatalyst and speed conditions directly affect the amount of nanoparticles released from catalytic 

Soils and sediments can accumulate large amounts of PGMs. Palladium exhibits the highest affinity for such matrices, in particular those of high clay content and exchangeable metallic fractions [221]. Platinum generally dominates in such 

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