investigation on possible contamination of port sediments by means of atrftir spectroscopy and thermal analysis

this study proposes a method employing thermogravimetric analysis (tg) to predict pollutionlevels by heavy metals (cr, cu, ni, zn, pb, cd and hg) in port sediments close to urban and industrial sitesfrom bay of cádiz. for this purpose, the thermogravimetric results of 14 sediment samples were recorded andshowed two characteristic ranges of temperatures (w1 as weight loss, %: 200-650°c) vs. (w2 as weight loss,%: 650-900°c) as being representative of the sediment characteristics. samples with a high w1 were characterizedby the prevalence of a thin fraction and high metal content, while samples with a high w2 were characterizedby large sandy fractions and, in general, low metal contents in agreement with the pollution load index (pli).furthermore, fourier transform infrared (atr-ftir) analysis proved to be an alternative tool for thesimultaneous detection of many components of sediments. combined with tg, this technique allows forsimultaneous, rapid and reliable screening of pollution levels in port sediments.