Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy for the Determination of Asbestos Species in Bulk Building Materials

Our plain-English summary of Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy for the Determination of Asbestos Species in Bulk Building Materials, by G. Accardo, R. Cioffi, F. Colangelo, et al (Materials, 2014).

The study

• Authors: G. Accardo, R. Cioffi, F. Colangelo, R. d'Angelo, L. De Stefano, F. Paglietti
• Journal: Materials
• Published: 2014;7(1):457-470
• Cited by: 9 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy is a well-known technique for thin film characterization. Since all asbestos species exhibit intense adsorptions peaks in the 4000-400 cm-1 region of the infrared spectrum, a quantitative analysis of asbestos in bulk samples by DRIFT is possible. In this work, different quantitative analytical procedures have been used to quantify chrysotile content in bulk materials produced by building requalification: partial least squares (PLS) chemometrics, the Linear Calibration Curve Method (LCM) and the Method of Additions (MoA). Each method has its own pros and cons, but all give affordable results for material characterization: the amount of asbestos (around 10%, weight by weight) can be determined with precision and accuracy (errors less than 0.1).

In plain English

This was a laboratory study of ways to measure how much asbestos is in building material. The authors tested diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy, an infrared technique, on asbestos cement taken from the remediation of industrial building roofs and supplied through a research project of INAIL's Campania regional office in Italy. The material contained chrysotile, and the study measured chrysotile only. The authors compared three ways of turning infrared readings into an asbestos percentage: the Method of Additions, a statistical approach called partial least squares, and the Linear Calibration Curve Method. Using two different infrared peaks, the Method of Additions gave 11.23% ± 0.06% and 11.20% ± 0.05% chrysotile by weight. Partial least squares gave 11.06%, with an uncertainty printed as 9.461. The Linear Calibration Curve Method gave 11.13% ± 0.02% and 11.30% ± 0.07%. The authors concluded that the three procedures were equivalent. They also concluded that DRIFT was precise and accurate in the range of asbestos content they explored, though it does not allow detection of very low levels of about 1% by weight.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Laboratory analytical-method study comparing three quantitative procedures applied to DRIFT infrared spectra of asbestos-containing material
• Who was studied: Asbestos cement material from the remediation of industrial building roofs, supplied by Ambiente s.r.l. within the local research project "Progetto Rifiuti" (INAIL, Regional Direction for Campania, Italy). The number of samples is not clearly stated.
• Exposure: Chrysotile in asbestos cement. The manufacturer's composition was chrysotile, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate and alumina, with asbestos content between 10% and 15% by weight. A NIST chrysotile standard (SRM 1866b) was used for the additions and the calibration mixtures.
• Main results:
  • Method of Additions on the roof asbestos-cement sample: 11.23% ± 0.06% chrysotile using the 3688 cm−1 peak, and 11.20% ± 0.05% using the 3645 cm−1 peak
  • Partial least squares on the same sample: 11.06% chrysotile, with an uncertainty printed in Table 4 as 9.461. The authors described this result as very close to the Method of Additions, with slightly larger errors.
  • Linear Calibration Curve Method on the same sample: 11.13% ± 0.02% using the 3688 cm−1 peak, and 11.30% ± 0.07% using the 3645 cm−1 peak
  • The authors found that the three procedures gave the same chrysotile content within experimental error
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the DRIFT-based procedures were precise and accurate in the asbestos concentration range they explored, although DRIFT does not allow a very low (about 1% by weight) limit of detection
• Limitations the authors state:
  • DRIFT does not allow a very low (about 1% by weight) limit of detection
  • The straight-line relationship between peak height and concentration that the methods rely on is not true in general and must be checked case by case
  • Peaks of other substances in the material can partly or fully mask the asbestos peaks, which affects the Linear Calibration Curve Method
  • Partial least squares becomes too complex and slow when the correlation matrix has many components
  • The precision of the Method of Additions could be limited compared with other procedures

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile.

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