International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—In the present study Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) method has been used to identify the elements present in some environmental samples (soil and vegetable) in order to show the possible influence of soil in the metal absorption by the vegetables grown in saline region of Bangladesh. PIXE can detect a high number of elements with a high sensitivity (ppm range) in a simple and fast way. The samples were prepared for irradiation following conventional methodology and irradiated with 2.5 MeV collimated protons from the 3 MV tandem accelerator of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The X-rays emitted during irradiation from the samples were measured by HPGe detector and the acquired X-ray spectrum was analyzed by using the software GUPIXWIN. The obtained results were compared with two standard values IAEA-359 (cabbage) and IAEA Soil-7. Concentrations of some heavy metals (Cr, Co and Ni) were found above the potentially risky levels in soils; however, they accumulated in plants to a lesser amount, probably because of the physical and chemical properties of soils that prevent their conduction to vegetables. As, Cd and Pb were not found in any one of the soil and vegetable samples in the present study.

Index Terms—Elemental analysis, GUPIXWIN software, PIXE, salinity, soil and vegetables.

M. R. Rahman and M. O. Rahman are with the Department of Physics, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh (e-mail: raafku@gmail.com, rahmanju83@gmail.com).
M. A. Shariff, M. S. Uddin, M. M. Hasan, and M. A. Shameem are with the Tandem Accelerator Facility, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh (e-mail: asad_shariff_roni@yahoo.com, md.suzauddin@yahoo.com, mehediapece@yahoo.com, shameem_afd@yahoo.com).

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Cite: M. R. Rahman, M. O. Rahman, M. A. Shariff, M. S. Uddin, M. M. Hasan, and M. A. Shameem, "PIXE Analysis of Some Environmental Samples from Selected Saline Region of Bangladesh," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 16-21, 2016.