The evaluation of atmospheric contamination by metallic trace elements in a given environment is carried out by several techniques and methods that can make it possible to retain certain inorganic and organic chemical elements that we find in our environment. This work allowed us to characterize the samples of aerosols collected from different places in the city of Kolwezi using the aerodynamic principle to sample them from a Dichotomous type device. During our research, we sampled twice a day; in the mornings and afternoons for a period of 2 hours per sampling.
As a result of industrial and artisanal mining activities releasing gaseous, liquid and solid waste into the environment associated with natural phenomena which at times concentrate contamination depending on the weather related to sudden climate change; we opted for a study based on the evaluation of atmospheric contamination by inorganic chemical elements contained in the PM 10 cases of the city of Kolwezi using portable X-ray fluorescence as a non-destructive analysis technique for aerosols fixed on the filter paper and as gravimetric sampling methods for collecting aerosols by impacting on filter paper.
After analyzing the filters, we noticed that all the districts of the city that were the subject of our study have an excessive concentration of air particles with a size of less than 10 microns.
The results obtained after the sampling work shows that the concentration of the particles sampled is 52 times greater than that published in 2012 by the WHO (i.e. 2623.524 micrograms/m3 in 2 hours of PM 10 particles which are greater than the limit value of the WHO, i.e. 50 microgram/m3). And after chemical analysis, we detected the following elements: Si, Mg, Al, Fe, Ca, Cu, Co, P, Zn, Cl, Rb, Sr, Zr, Nb, Mo, Pd, Ag, Cd, P, Col, K, Sb, Re, Mb, Cu.