Antimony in Urban Roadside Surface Soils: Concentration, Source and Mode of Occurrence

Antimony (Sb) is one of the elements of increasing environmental significance. In this study, concentrations of Sb were measured on 21 roadside topsoil samples collected from a medium-size city, Xuzhou (China), in order to assess the magnitude of contamination and to identify the possible contamination sources. The mode of occurrence of Sb and the effect of particle size fractions on Sb concentration distributions were also investigated from two specific soil samples. Median of Sb concentrations of the investigated urban surface soils is 0.96 mg kg-1. The Sb in the Xuzhou topsoils is mainly attributed to the inputs of coal combustion and almost independent of the particle size fractions. The most common mode of occurrence of Sb is in association with organically-bound fraction.