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Description
Although moss is widely used to monitor the air quality due to its special properties. However, collecting moss in large cities with high density of concrete is very difficult. This paper presents the results of the first study to investigate the chemical element absorption capacity of cotton, a readily available material as a substitute for moss. Cotton and Climacium dendroides moss samples were simultaneously exposed near the top of a coal-fired bronze casting furnace in Bac Ninh province (Vietnam) for 15 days and hung on trees in Dubna for 3 months. The contents of 12 heavy metals including Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, V, Zn in exposed and original (unexposed) cotton and moss samples were determined by ICP-OES method. The analysis results showed that the contents of 3 elements Al, Fe, Zn in moss samples are higher than in cotton. The differences in the content of the remaining 9 elements including Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, V in cotton and moss samples were not much. The result of this first study is the motivation for further studies in the future to evaluate the possibility of using cotton wool as a substitute for living moss to monitor the quality of chemical element pollution in the air in Vietnam.
