Magnetic mineralogy and grain-size dependence of hysteresis parameters of single spherules from industrial waste products

The use of magnetic susceptibility as a proxy for the relative degree of industrial pollution of soils and sediments is only qualitative and complications arise when unmixing the contributions from different sources. Detailed characterization of anthropogenic magnetic phases is needed in order to discriminate the input from different sources. The present study investigates magnetic fractions from fly ashes from different thermoelectric power plants and lagooned ash from metal works in Bulgaria, to further our knowledge of potential sources. Thermomagnetic analysis of saturation magnetization (Ms) and magnetic susceptibility (K) revealed a low-substituted magnetite-like phase in power-plant fly ashes and magnetite/maghemite phases in lagooned ash. Magnetic hysteresis measurements on single spherules from the wastes are combined with subsequent SEM/EDX examination of the same grains, allowing for the grain size dependence of the hysteresis parameters to be directly obtained for the studied anthropogenic phases. The results suggest that the structure-sensitive magnetic parameters for the lagooned ash show stronger size dependence compared to the published data for synthetic crushed magnetites, which is due to the complex internal structure and stress level in the anthropogenic phases formed under fast cooling conditions. Moreover, the Day plot for the studied single grains shows the presence of different correlation lines for fly ashes and the lagooned ash, i.e. it discriminates between the sources.