In this study the metal composition of PM1 and PM2.5 samples collected in the surroundings of a municipal incinerator located in a suburban–farming area, less than 10 km away from Northeast of Bologna (Italy) was investigated. Seven out of eight monitoring stations were installed in a domain of 8x9 km2 around the incinerator plant; the eighth station was placed inside the urban area of Bologna. The coordinates of four monitoring stations were selected on the basis of a preliminary study by using a dispersion model. Eleven metals (Al, Sb, As, Cd, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cu, V, Zn) were quantified in both the filter acid–digests and in the water extracts. The PM2.5 collected in all the sites of the domain were highly correlated with exception of the urban site. The daily average metal concentrations in summer were 1.84% and 1.14% for PM2.5 and PM1 respectively, indicating that fine particles are less enriched in metals. Fe, Al and Zn were the most abundant elements, and they represented about the 80% of the total amount of the analyzed ones. The average water soluble metal compositions were 0.71% and 0.41% for PM2.5 and PM1 respectively. In the sites of the suburban–farming studied area the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis revealed differences between water soluble metal compositions in PM1 and PM2.5. The urban sites were characterized by lower total and soluble metals contents than the other PM2.5 stations installed around the incinerator plant. However, no noticeable difference in the concentrations of metals in the particulate matter between the sites chosen as maxima of incinerator emissions and the control sites was observed

Ambient temperature adsorption isotherms have been determined for methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in aqueous solutions on high silica ZSM-5 and Y zeolites which differ from each other in framework topology and pore window apertures. The comparison of their adsorption properties was performed to evaluate the importance of the competitive interference of water with pore size. The adsorption Henry's constants for MTBE decrease with an increase in the zeolite pore size, indicating that confinement of the adsorbate in the zeolite pores is a driving force for adsorption. On the contrary, the saturation capacity increases with an increase in the adsorbent pore size (i.e. about 95 and 250 mg g⁻¹ for ZSM-5 and Y, respectively). These data were confirmed from Rietveld refinement, that clearly revealed the incorporation of about 8 and 32 MTBE molecules per ZSM-5 and Y unit cell respectively. X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy indicate that significant clustering of the guest molecules (i.e. water and MTBE) occurs in the two investigated zeolites during adsorption from both the liquid and gas phase. The clusters originate from hydrogen bonding between MTBE and water molecules and their interaction with zeolite lead to framework flexibility for both zeolites. However, the framework deformation in Y is more evident than in ZSM-5 and occurs with a change of the real symmetry. These findings could have an impact on the adsorption, separation and catalytic use of zeolites for oxygenate compounds.