Sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure （XANES） spectroscopy was employed to study the speciation of sulfur in raw coal, ash by-product and fine particulate matter from a small coal-burning boiler. By means of least square analysis of the XANES spectra, the major organic and inorganic sulfur forms were quantitatively determined. The results show that about 70% of the sulfur in raw coal is present as organic and a minor fraction of the sulfur occurs as other forms： 17% of pyrite and 13% of sulfate. While in bottom ash, fly ash, and PM2.5, the dominant form of sulfur is sulfate, with the percentage of 80,79 and 94, respectively. Moreover, a number of other reduced sulfur including thiophenic sulfur, element sulfur and pyrrhotite are also present. During coal combustion, most of organic sulfur and pyrite were oxidized and released into the atmosphere as SO2 gas, part of them was converted to sulfate existing in coal combustion by-products, and a small part of pyrite was probably reduced to elemental sulfur and pyrrhotite. The results may provide information for assessing the pollution caused by small boiler and developing new methods for the control of SO2 pollution.
The impact of coal-burning emission on sulfur in camphor leaves was investigated using Proton Induced X-ray Emission （PIXE） and synchrotron radiation technique X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure （XANES） spectroscopy. The PIXE results show that the sulfur concentrations in the leaves collected at the polluted site are significantly higher than those in controls. The Sulfur XANES spectra show the presence of organic （disulfides, thiols, thioethers, sulfonates and sulfoxides） and inorganic sulfur （sulfates） in the leaves. The inorganic sulfur in the leaves of camphor tree polluted by coal combustion is 15% more than that of the control site. The results suggest that the long-term coal-burning pollution resulted in an enhanced content of the total sulfur and sulfate in the leaves, and the uptake of sulfur by leaves had exceeded the metabolic requirement of plants and the excess of sulfur was stored as SO4^2-. It can monitor the sulfur pollution in atmosphere.
Ca-based additives have been widely used as a sulfur adsorbent during coal pyrolysis and gasification. The Ca speciation and evolution during the pyrolysis of coal with Ca additives have attracted great attention. In this paper, Ca species in the coal chars prepared from the pyrolysis of Ca（OH）2 or CaCO3-added coals are studied by using Ca K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structural spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that Ca（OH）2 , CaSO4 , CaS and CaO coexist in the Ca（OH）2-added chars, while Ca（OH）2 and CaSO4 are the main species in the Ca（OH）2-added chars. Besides, a carboxyl-bound Ca is also formed during both the pyrolysis for the Ca（OH）2-added and the CaCO3-added coals. A detailed discussion about the Ca speciation is given.
Analyzing and understanding the effects of ambient pollution on plants is getting more and more attention as a topic of environmental biology.A method based on synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence and X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy was established to analyze the sulfur concentration and speciation in mature camphor tree leaves （CTLs）,which were sampled from 5 local fields in Shanghai,China.Annual SO2 concentration,SO42-concentration in atmospheric particulate,SO42-and sulfur concentration in soil were also analyzed to explore the relationship between ambient sulfur sources and the sulfur nutrient cycling in CTLs.Total sulfur concentration in mature camphor tree leaves was 766-1704 mg/kg.The mainly detected sulfur states and their corresponding compounds were ＋6 （sulfate,include inorganic sulfate and organic sulfate）,＋5.2 （sulfonate）,＋2.2 （suloxides）,＋0.6 （thiols and thiothers）,＋0.2 （organic sulfides）.Total sulfur concentration was strongly correlated with sulfate proportion with a linear correlation coefficient up to 0.977,which suggested that sulfur accumulated in CTLs as sulfate form.Reduced sulfur compounds （organic sulfides,thiols,thioethers,sulfoxide and sulfonate） assimilation was sufficed to meet the nutrient requirement for growth at a balanced level around 526 mg/kg.The sulfate accumulation mainly caused by atmospheric sulfur pollution such as SO2 and airborne sulfate particulate instead of soil contamination.From urban to suburb place,sulfate in mature CTLs decreased as the atmospheric sulfur pollution reduced,but a dramatic increase presented near the seashore,where the marine sulfate emission and maritime activity pollution were significant.The sulfur concentration and speciation in mature CTLs effectively represented the long-term biological accumulation of atmospheric sulfur pollution in local environment.
The total electron yield （TEY） mode has been developed successfully for XANES measurements at Beamline 4BTA of BSRF （Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility）. Its performance was studied by measuring sulphur K-edge XANES of three CdS samples （mixed with graphite powder as an electric conductor） with different concentration： 75%, 50~ and 25%. The data are collected in TEY mode and fluorescence yield （FY） mode respectively for comparison. The results demonstrate that the TEY spectra of three samples agree well with each other after the background is subtracted and normalized. The measured XANES spectra by TEY mode without bias and with 100V bias are almost identical to one another, but the signal-to-noise ratio of spectra measured without bias is better than that with 100V bias. The consistency of the self-absorption corrected FY spectra and TEY spectra are within 10% for the three samples.
