Distribution of Heavy Metals in Core Marine Sediments of Coastal East Malaysia by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis and Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy

Ahmadreza Ashraf; Elias Saion; Elham Gharibshahi; Chee Kong Yap; Halimah Mohamed Kamari; Md Suhaimi Elias; Shamsiah Abdul Rahman

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.012

Distribution of Heavy Metals in Core Marine Sediments of Coastal East Malaysia by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis and Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Feb:132:222-231. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.012. Epub 2017 Nov 10.

Authors

Ahmadreza Ashraf¹, Elias Saion², Elham Gharibshahi³, Chee Kong Yap⁴, Halimah Mohamed Kamari², Md Suhaimi Elias⁵, Shamsiah Abdul Rahman⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: ahmadashraf.2007@yahoo.com.
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁵ Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

PMID: 29183762
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.012

Abstract

Fifty-five core marine sediments from three locations at South China Sea and one location each at Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea of coastal East Malaysia were analyzed for heavy metals by instrumental neutron activation analysis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. The enrichment factor and the modified degree of contamination were used to calculate the anthropogenic and pollution status of the elements in the samples. The enrichment factor of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn varied from 0.42-4.26, 0.50-2.34, 0.31-0.82, 0.20-0.61, 0.91-1.92, 0.23-1.52, and 0.90-1.28, respectively, with the modified degree of contamination values below 0.6. Comparative data showed that coastal East Malaysia has low levels of contamination.

Keywords: Core marine sediments; East Malaysia; Enrichment factor; Heavy metals; INAA and ICP-MS method; Modified degree of contamination.