Caracterização de fertilizantes forticados com pós de aciaria através da análise exploratória de dados

Abstract

Industrial residues, such as flue dust, has being used as a source of essential trace elements in fertilizers . These residues have different essential elements and can supply the plant necessity for mineral nutrients. On the other hand, these residues may also contain highly toxic elements. In this work, samples of fertilizers, flue dust and fertilizer samples spiked with different concentrations of flue dust were characterized using different analytical techniques such as: flame atomic absorption spectrometry (F AAS), flame atomic emission spectrometry (F AES), infrared spectroscopy (IR), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). For the determination of Cr, K, Na, Pb and Zn in the investigated samples by F AAS and F AES an extraction procedure using ultrasound bath was optimized. The optimum conditions for the analytes extraction were: 50 mg of fertilizers, 5.00 mL of diluted aqua regia solution (50 v/v %). The developed method was conducted in six steps of sonication per 20 minutes with intervals of 1 minute (on stirring). The results were in agreement at 95% confidence level for all analytes investigated in relation to the reference method adopted (standard addition). Appropriated precision (RSD <10%) and accuracy were obtained with recoveries between 90-103% for fertilizers and 85-105% for flue dust sample. The IR and Raman spectroscopy proved mineralogical (organic and inorganic) information, which were attested by DRX. Exploratory data analysis using PCA (principal component analysis) and HCA (hierarchical cluster analysis) techniques allowed differentiating spiked samples (from 5% of flue dust) and non-spiked samples by using data from F AAS and F AES analysis. The association of elemental data with IR and Raman data allowed differentiating spiked samples from 1% of industrial flue dust.