Bismuth occurrence in a oysters shell of neotropical mangrove ecosystem

MARISA N. FERNANDES; MAGDALENA V. MONFERRAN; DANIEL A. WUNDERLIN; MARÍA V. BARONI; MIKE ELLIOT; SILVIA T. MATSUMOTO; LIVIA D. ROCHA; IAN D. DUARTE; VITOR A. S. MENDES; IARA C. SOUZA

Varaderos

Congreso; XIV Inter-America Congress of Microscopy; 2017

Bismuth (Bi) is an environmentally relevant element that due to its chemical and physical characteristics has been used in numerous industrial processes such as semiconductors, metallurgical additives, cosmetic products, medicines, air cleaning and water purification. Despite its low concentration in nature, there is an increased awareness of the potential exposure arising from industrial release, leading to environmental contamination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of Bi in shell oysters of two neotropical mangrove estuarine ecosystem. Scanning electron microscope analysis showed bismuth in almost all oyster shells. Besides bismuth, Ba, W, Ti, Zr, Y, La, Ce were also founded in oyster shell samples, and these alements are not usually analysed in environmental monitoring and are considered as rare elements with no determined biological role. Nowadays, these elements have been used in electronic components, for corrosion resistance and new alloys by electronic industry and other metallurgical industries. Most elements detected by SEM analysis coupled with EDS, can be considered as emerging contaminants in the environment and research in the biota are scarce. Although, all these rare elements are nonessential to the humans and the analysed biota, special attention should be given to the presence of these elements in the environment in future researches.