Microcharacterization of heterogeneous specimens containing tire dust: Development of specimen preparationn, methods and analytical procedures (poster)

Particulate produced by automotive traffic contain heterogeneous constituents such as combustion products and debris from the wear of brakes, tires and the road surface. These particles have an impact on human health and on environmental compartments hence the identification of particles is required in order to assess their impact. Besides elemental analysis of a bulk specimen by conventional ``wet chemistry'', the size, shape and chemistry of the particles must be carefully examined on a micro scale, since each constituent forms a variety of morphological, physical and chemical ``phases.'' Tire dust samples were the most challenging problem, since the original rubber consists of composite materials known to contain styrene - butadiene copolymers, fillers, Zn and S compounds. The experimental results reported herewith were obtained from both homogeneous (tire dust alone) and heterogeneous specimens (mixtures of tire dust with mineral and organic particles). Microcharacterisation of tire dust appeared to be feasible by adequate sample preparation followed by SEM - EDXS and TEM - CBED analysis.