Nature Communications (Aug 2017)

Discovery and ramifications of incidental Magnéli phase generation and release from industrial coal-burning

  • Yi Yang,
  • Bo Chen,
  • James Hower,
  • Michael Schindler,
  • Christopher Winkler,
  • Jessica Brandt,
  • Richard Di Giulio,
  • Jianping Ge,
  • Min Liu,
  • Yuhao Fu,
  • Lijun Zhang,
  • Yuru Chen,
  • Shashank Priya,
  • Michael F. Hochella

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00276-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Solid-state emissions from coal burning remain an environmental concern. Here, the authors have found that TiO2 minerals present in coal are converted into titanium suboxides during burning, and initial biotoxicity screening suggests that further testing is needed to look into human lung consequences.