title: Recycling oriented comparison of mercury distribution in new and spent fluorescent lamps and their potential risk.
abstract: This study compares the mercury distribution in the vapor phase, the phosphor powder and the glass matrix of new and spent fluorescent lamps. The spent fluorescent lamps were obtained at the collection yards of a public waste management company in Hamburg, Germany. An innovative systematic sampling method is utilized to collect six spent and eight corresponding new, off-the-shelf fluorescent lamp samples. The efficiency of several acid digestion methods for the determination of the elemental composition was studied and elemental mass fractions of K, Na, Y, Ca, Ba, Eu, Al, Pb, Mg, Hg, and P were measured. The study also finds aqua regia to be the best reagent for acid digestion. However, no significant difference in mercury distribution was found in the different phases of the new and spent fluorescent lamps.
authors.affiliation: Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schlossstrasse 36, 21079 Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: julia.Hobohm@tuhh.de.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hobohm
authors.affiliation: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: krueger-oliver@t-online.de.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.affiliation: Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schlossstrasse 36, 21079 Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: srotoswini.basu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Srotoswini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.affiliation: Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schlossstrasse 36, 21079 Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: kuchta@tuhh.de.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuchta
authors.affiliation: University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Luxemburger Str. 10, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: Sebastian.vanwasen@web.de.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Wasen
authors.affiliation: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Richard-Willstätter Str. 11, 12489 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: christian.adam@bam.de.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D005453:Fluorescence; D005740:Gases; D005858:Germany; D005898:Glass; D006256:Hazardous Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D006794:Household Articles / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D012306:Risk; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D006256:Hazardous Waste; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Elemental analysis; Sampling; Sorting analysis; Spent fluorescent lamps; WEEE