Heavy metals are metallic elements with a density of at least 5 g/cm^3. Some heavy metals exist in nature and within organisms naturally, but many heavy metals are poisonous at low concentrations and the amount of heavy metals in nature has increased because of human activity, both in water and on land. X-ray fluorescence is a suitable method to measure heavy metals. X-ray fluorescence, or XRF as its abbreviated, is a measurement method that uses fluorescent x-ray radiation from elements to identify and quantify. Mitt University in Sundsvall has an x-ray lab that has a portable x-ray fluorescence instrument that has been used to conduct measurements. The samples have been sea water and bottom sediment from three different areas in Gävlebukten. One of the areas had multiple big industries nearby, one was next to the city and one on the countryside. This work shows that usage of a portable XRF instrument to measure heavy metals in sediment produces a good result. Multiple metals were detected and one sample contained mercury in a high concentration. Measurements of sea water had too low signal to noise ratio to show any presence of heavy metals in all but one sample. This assumes to be because of waters interaction with x-ray radiation in combination with the low concentration of the metals and that a too short measurement time was used.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hig-39145 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Tuleborg, Max |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Gävle, Elektronik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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