Caterina Rinaudo

Amedeo Avogadro University of Eastern Piedmont | UNIPMN · Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica DISIT

In the last few years, an increasing interest has developed regarding the application of different techniques for the identification of pollutants inside the tissues deriving from patients affected by benign or neoplastic diseases. Particular attention was paid to neoplasia linked to particular exposures, e.g., heavy metals, carbon dusts, silica, a...

Asbestos is a term that includes six fibrous mineral phases related to different lung diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer, and Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM). Since the last century, these minerals have been widely studied under their mineralogical/chemical and physical aspects with in vivo and in vitro studies to understand the mecha...

Background: The mineral phases regulated as “asbestos” have a well-known role in disease development in the respiratory tract (e.g. mesothelioma, pulmonary carcinoma, asbestosis), but it is not clear their role in cancer development in other body sites, as in colon-rectum tract. Materials and Methods: In this work, seven colon tissues (healthy and...

Nowadays, the coating industry offers a wide range of products to protect, decorate, and perform special functions on surfaces of objects such as automobiles, aerospace aircrafts, heavy industrial machines and structures, consumable toys, and many other products. The use of coatings as a corrosion protection agent is of great interest in the resear...

The aim of this work was to inspect the presence of asbestos fibers in colon tissue from a patient, with history of indirect exposure to asbestos and affected by colon cancer, who underwent surgery. Variable pressure scanning electron microscopy, coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (VP-SEM/EDS), was used for identification of inorganic fibe...

Carbonaceous materials (CMs) have been widely used to assess temperatures in sedimentary and metamorphic carbonate rocks. The use of Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material (RSCM) is largely devoted to the study of deformed rocks hosted in thrust-tectonic settings. Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material successfully allows the study of car...

Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been applied to fibrous minerals regulated as “asbestos”—anthophyllite, actinolite, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, and chrysotile—responsible of severe diseases affecting mainly, but not only, the respiratory system. The technique proved to be powerful in the identification of the mineral phase and in the recognition...

Purpose:: To assess whether asbestos fibers may be observed in liver tissue of patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CC) with environmental or working asbestos exposure. Methods:: Detection of fibers was performed directly on histologic sections of liver from 7 patients with CC using optical microscope and variable pressure scanning electron microsc...

Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been applied on UICC (Union for International Cancer Control’s) crocidolite and amosite from South Africa and on UICC chrysotile from Canada. Under Optical Microscope (OM), the surface of the fibers was often characterized by areas, micrometric in size, appearing dark. The laser beam was successively focused on areas of...

The methods conventionally used to determine the burden of asbestos fibres inhaled/incorporated in lung require chemical digestion of the biological matrix before counting/characterising the inorganic fibrous phases under scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Asbestos fibres can also be present in extra-pulmonar...

The gem-quality “noble serpentine” of Pizzo Tremogge (Val Malenco, Italy) is included in Palaeozoic olivine-bearing marbles, occurring in the Margna unit, Central Austroalpine domain. A detailed inspection of serpentine samples reveals the presence of the three serpentine species (lizardite, chrysotile and antigorite) occurring in different microst...

en Gallbladders from patients affected by both malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and important gallbladder disorders were analyzed to verify the presence of asbestos fibres. Histological thin sections were analyzed by optical microscope and variable pressure scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, allowing morph...

The strong relation between inhaled asbestos fibers and development of important respiratory diseases (asbestosis, pulmonary carcinoma, mesothelioma) is now demonstrated by many researches and accepted by the international community. The peculiarity of the minerals defined by the law “asbestos” is their growth as long and thin fibers that, as a con...

The purpose of this work is to define a sample preparation protocol that allows inorganic fibers and particulate matter extracted from different biological samples to be characterized morphologically, crystallographically and chemically by transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (TEM-EDS). The method does not damage or creat...

Pizzo Tremogge in Val Malenco, Italy, is a source of gem-quality serpentine. Samples from this mountain locality were investigated by standard gemological and petrological methods, Raman spectroscopy, and electron microprobe analysis. The rough and polished specimens were massive aggregates, with a green to yellow color and white, gray, and black v...

Erionite samples from Rome, Oregon (USA) and Karlik, Cappadocia (Turkey) were analyzed by environmental scanning electron microscopy (E-SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to verify the chemical composition of this mineral phase, and the presence of iron in particular. By means of backscattered electron images, a large number of...

In order to investigate content and localization of arsenic in natural fluorapatite, a micro-Raman spectroscopic study was carried out on As-rich fluorapatite crystals from the volcanic region of Mt. Calvario (Mount Etna, Italy). The crystals, from both the unaltered lavas and the metasomatized rocks, show a pure fluorapatite composition in the cor...

This exploratory study aimed to evaluate the presence of asbestos fibers in the biliary tract of patients living in an asbestos-polluted area using scanning electron microscopy. Thin gallbladder sections were obtained from five patients who were operated on for gallbladder stones and the bile fluid of one of the patients was analyzed using variable...

Selected samples of asbestos-containing material (ACM) with different Ca/Si ratios have been treated thermally at 1200°C for 15 min to obtain an 'end of waste geo-inspired material'. Before and after treatment, micro-Raman spectroscopy allowed the investigation of both powdered and massive samples by directing the laser beam onto crystals with elon...

The target of this work is to present a different sample preparation approach that allows to characterize by TEM-EDS the inorganic fibers and particulate matters from a morphological, crystallographic, and chemical point of view. The used method has to avoid provoke, in the inorganic material extracted from biological sample, any kind of damage or...

La provincia di Alessandria e soprattutto l’area di Casale Monferrato sono note per l’elevata incidenza di tumori correlati all’amianto, in particolare il mesotelioma. Vi è l’impressione clinica, però, che anche l’incidenza dei tumori del tratto gastroenterico, tra cui i tumori della colecisti, sia più elevata della media nazionale in questa zona,...

Serpentinites are metamorphic rocks with good technological properties and valuable ornamental characteristics, which have been exploited since ancient times. Actually, their use is limited and monitored in several countries worldwide because they can contain fibrous asbestos minerals that may be carcinogenic. Furthermore, certain types of fibrous...

Malignant mesothelioma is strongly associated with asbestos exposure. Among asbestos fibers, crocidolite is considered the most and chrysotile the least oncogenic. Chrysotile accounts for more than 90% of the asbestos used worldwide, but its capacity to induce malignant mesothelioma is still debated. We found that chrysotile and crocidolite exposur...

Exposure to asbestos or erionite is associated with malignant mesothelioma (MM) and other diseases. Micro‐Raman spectroscopy and Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy were used to identify mineral fibers in histological sections of various tissues taken from mice injected with crocidolite asbestos and erionit...

To investigate the structure and microstructure changes of crocidolite asbestos incorporated in biological tissues, fibers of this mineral phase were injected in mice peritoneum. Histological sections of different organs of mice developing mesothelioma after crocidolite inoculation were prepared and analysed by optical microscopy. The tumours devel...

In this work, the high-temperature inertization product of a representative batch of samples of cement-asbestos (CA) from different localities in Italy have been characterized with a multidisciplinary approach. All the raw CA samples were heated at 1200°C for 15min. After firing, they underwent a series of solid state reactions leading to global st...

The Bormida River Basin, located in the northwestern region of Italy, has been strongly contaminated by the ACNA chemical factory. This factory was in operation from 1892 to 1998, and contamination from the factory has had deleterious consequences on the water quality, agriculture, natural ecosystems and human health. Attempts have been made to rem...

Ferruginous bodies observed in lungs of patients affected by mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pulmonary carcinoma are important to relate the illness to exposure, environmental or occupational, to asbestos. Identification of the inorganic phase constituting the core of the ferruginous bodies, formed around asbestos but also around phases different fro...

A new index named Air Quality Balance Index (AQBI), which is able to characterise the amount of pollution level in a selected area, is proposed. This index is a function of the ratios between pollutant concentration values and their standards; it aims at identifying all situations in which there is a possible environmental risk even when several po...

Thin sections of pleura and lung prepared for diagnosis of Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) in patients who underwent pleurodesis were analysed by micro-Raman spectroscopy. In the pleural tissue, visual inspection under an optical microscope attached to the Raman spectroscope revealed numerous acicular crystals and several rounded particles, micrometers...

a modus operandi to move on suitable support for morphological, chemical and mineralogical characterization under scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with Energy dispersive spectroscopy (sEM/Eds) of the inorganic component of PM10, collected on depth filters routinely used by the Environmental Protection agencies (in italy a.r.P.a.) for the air q...

In Italy, reclamation of asbestos-containing materials (ACM) such as friable asbestos and cement-asbestos is accomplished by their removal, packaging and dumping in controlled landfills. An alternative way to landfill disposal is the thermal transformation of ACM and recycling of the transformation product as secondary raw material. The aim of this...

Ni-doped chrysotile fibers were synthesized in hydrothermal conditions at 300–350°C, 15–200MPa, 160–312h treatment times and pH 5–10. The starting materials and run products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, both with annexed energy-dispersive spectrometry (SEM/EDS and TEM/ED...

In a previous work it has been demonstrated that micro-Raman spectroscopy is a technique able to recognize crystalline phases on untreated samples. In that case, inorganic particles and uncoated fibers from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of a patient affected by pneumoconiosis were identified and characterized. In this work the technique is applied t...

Histological sections of a patient affected by an important respiratory disease were analysed firstly by optical microscope(OM)—crossed polarisers—to identify the presence of incorporated inorganic particles, with particular attention to the fibrous ones. Then, the particles/fibres that were found were studied both with micro-Raman spectroscopy and...

: Twenty-four soil samples were collected at three depths from an approximately 2.5 acre contaminated site in southern Piedmont (Italy) and then analyzed. The main soil parameters determined were: pH, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), particle size distribution, total organic carbon (TOC) content and retained metal concentration. The mineral phases w...

Three ex situ collections of poplar clones from natural populations of Populus alba and P. nigra growing in northern Italy were assessed for their genetic dissimilarity (GD) by means of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). The high GD evidenced within populations was exploited for screening 168 clones in a field trial on heavy metal-pollu...

The chrysotile fibres toxicity appears correlated to the redox activity of iron present in the chrysotile structure. In fact the generation of reactive oxygen species and other radicals appears catalyzed by iron ions and closely related to Fe ions organization in specific crystallographic sites having a capability to activate free radical generatio...

Fibres of Fe-free tremolitic amphibole were synthesized using hydrothermal conditions. The run products contained only minor amounts of one other phase, quartz, as determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). The fibrous material was characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopies combined with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM...

Fluoro-edenite crystals from Biancavilla, a mineral characterized by various cations in different crystallographic sites, have been studied with Electron Microprobe Analysis (EMPA) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The spectroscope used in this study was fitted withi an optical microscope equipped with two polarizers and a rotating plate with a vernier...

The prismatic variety of fluoro-edenite, a new amphibole found in lavas from Mt Etna in Biancavilla (Catania Province, Sicily, Italy), has been characterized by μ-Raman and μ-FTIR spectroscopy. The wavenumbers at which the bands are detected in the μ-Raman and μ-FTIR spectra are compared with tremolite, asbestos the chemical and crystallographic ch...

The feasibility of electrokinetic remediation of copper-contaminated soil was evaluated following eight days of electroreclamation. The results indicate that electrokinetic reclamation of Cu is totally ineffective in soil composed primarily of clay minerals and organic matter. The strong absorption of copper by this kind of soil, in our view mainly...

Identifying serpentine minerals in rocks is generally accomplished by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersion Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), both of which require complicated sample preparation. In this work, we evaluate the use of micro-Raman spectroscopy, which requires no sample preparation,...

An investigation on the sediment composition and grain size was carried out along the Bormida river (Piedmont, Northern Italy). The samples were taken both in the riverbed and on its banks. Multivariate statistical exploratory methods permitted to identify possible sources of primary pollution. In particular, principal component analysis (PCA) show...

This work describes a procedure, intended for use during the characterization of contaminated sites, that employs glass columns to separate substantial amounts (several grams) of the different particle size fractions in ground. The method was thoroughly tested and proved highly reproducible, as indicated by the very low CV% (percentage variation co...

The presence of asbestos in serpentinite rocks of the Western Alps has been known for a century. Further investigations have revealed the presence of nine fibrous minerals, besides the asbestos tremolite, actinolite and chrysotile, some of them in high amount. All these fibres are carried away over a long distance both by the wind and by human acti...

A great mean value of recovery for extraction of 3,4-dichloroaniline from a soil is calculated from individual recovery values evaluated for four different fractions of the soil. Then the uncertainty associated to this great mean recovery is calculated and used to know whether to apply or not the correction in routine analysis performed for the sam...

This study shows that Raman micro-spectroscopy is a simple and accurate method of detecting and identifying asbestos fibres in synthetic cement. The crystalline phases detected by Raman spectroscopy were confirmed by comparing them with results obtained using more commonly used techniques: XRPD, SEM-EDS and TEM-EDS.

Batch experiments have been performed in order to evaluate the ability of the two reference clays kaolinite (KGa-1) and Na-montmorillonite (SWy-1) to retain three representative chloroanilines: 3-chloroaniline, 3,4-dichloroaniline and 2,4,6-trichloroaniline. Systems containing the clay mineral and the pollutant solution (at concentration levels ran...

Pure phases of several di-octahedral (muscovite, Ca and Na-montmorillonites) and tri-octahedral (phlogopite, vermiculite and hectorite) T–O–T phyllosilicates have been studied by FT-Raman spectroscopy to determine whether there are characteristic vibrations for each family of minerals. The samples were first characterized by X-ray powder diffractio...

Raman spectroscopy was assessed for its ability to rapidly identify asbestos phases by submitting the amphiboles anthophyllite, amosite, crocidolite and tremolite to spectroscopic analysis. All the phases were characterized by using XRD, SEM, TEM (CTEM, SAED), AEM and EDS techniques. This study demonstrates that accurate identification of the miner...

We analyzed samples of antigorite, lizardite and fibrous chrysotile, three representative minerals of the serpentine group, to determine their chemical and structural properties, and their FT-Raman spectra. The low-frequency region of the spectrum (1200– 200 cm –1), which corresponds to the lattice-vibration modes, was then analyzed, and the observ...

In order to give a deeper insight into the cracking of the Verneuil corundum boules, several samples of different colors and from different industrial sources have been analyzed by means of white beam synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction topography (WB-SR-XRDT) and PBC analysis (Hartman and Perdock theory). The cracking occurs along an irregular...

Half boules of industrial red corundum (Al2O3) synthesized by the Verneuil process were cut into slices (about 1 mm thick) crosswise or lengthwise to the growth axis of the samples. All the slices were analysed by optical microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and by X-ray transmission topography. The samples turned out to be single cryst...

Corundum (Al2O3) boules grown by the Verneuil process generally crack along an irregular surface parallel to the elongation axis. In order to investigate the reasons for such cracking, a half boule of blue corundum, industrially produced following the Verneuil technique, was cut into slices (about 1 mm thick) parallel or normal to the elongation ax...

Gypsum and a non-stoichiometric calcium phosphate sulphate hydrate (CPSH) were grown from solutions poisoned by phosphate ions. The pH ranged from 4.7 to 5.6 and the sulphate over phosphate ratios from 1.5 to 9. In some cases, when the phosphate concentration was high (30%–40%) CPSH was stable. When the phosphate concentration was lower (10%–20%),...

The crystallization from solutions of 36 × 10-3M in [Ca]2- = [HPO4]2-, with ratios [SO4]2-/[HPO4]2- ranging from 0.11 to 1, was studied at 25°C. When [SO4]2- was present in the starting solutions in small amounts (ratios 0.11–0.43), only brushite, twinned following the [010] direction, crystallized. The morphology and habit of the crystals were str...

Crystals grown in convective media often show defects related to solution flux. Traces of polyethylene oxide (PEO) added to potash alum crystal growth solution slightly reduce the growth rates but significantly improve the quality of the crystal. In order to interpret this action, an electrochemical simulation of mass transfer during growth was att...

Single and twinned gypsum crystals grown from solution were studied by X-ray transmission topography. Different types of dislocations were observed and their Burgers vectors were determined. Their influence on the growth of the crystals and on their final habit is discussed.

The growth of gypsum, CaSO4.2H2O, under pressure was studied starting from a dense suspension of CaSO4.0.67H2O in water. Pressures of 150, 300 or 600 MPa were applied at different times from the beginning of hydration of the initial material and were maintained constant for 15 min. The crystallized material was examined by DTA, X-ray and SEM techni...

Gypsum crystals were grown at 25, 35, and 45 ~ from solutions containing different ionic impurities (Mg 2+, Na +, Cd2+). Curved gypsum .crystals formed from the solutions enriched in magnesium or cadmium, whereas, in the presence of sodium, gypsum always grew undeformed. The mechanism of the curvature is described and an interpretation based on cry...

Gypsum crystals, CaSO4⋯2H2O, are grown from solutions containing large amounts of cadmium chloride as an impurity. The initial supersaturations necessary for the gypsum nucleation increase with increasing cadmium concentration. Accordingly, at constant initial supersaturation, the induction periods also increase with increasing cadmium concentratio...

Diopside single-crystals grown from melt of stoichiometric composition were cooled at a constant rate of 15oC/hr. The most frequent forms observed were (100), (001), (010), (110) and (111). The experimental morphology is compared with the theoretical one predicted by the Hartman & Perdok theory.-R.A.H.

Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O2) crystals which are large and good enough to be characterized by X-ray topography have been grown from solution and from gel in order to study their twin growth.

Several auto-epitaxies of tabular (010) crystals of newberyite were produced by crystallization at 25 and 40oC of ammoniacal solutions of magnesium and phosphate ions in the range 0.05-0.25 M. The mutual orientations of the individuals were measured and the corresponding two-dimensional coincidence cells on the (010) plane were found. Three of the...

The influence of anhydrous uric acid (C5H4N4O3) on whewellite (CaC2O4.H2O) crystallization has been demonstrated at 4OoC, pH = 3.0 and 5.0. Increasing amounts of uric acid in solution reduce the number of whewellite crystals but increase their size. No heterogeneous nucleation or epitaxial growth of whewellite onto anhydrous uric acid was observed...

The epitaxy of newberyite (MgHPO4·3H2O) and anhydrous (C5H4N4O3) or hydrated (C5H4N4O3·2H2O) uric acid was investigated at 37°C by growing crystals of each phase from supersaturated solutions in the pH range 4.2–5.7 and for concentration values of 0.05M ⩽[Mg]=[P]⩽0.3M. From solutions highly supersaturated with respect to newberyite and the hydrated...

The solubilities of dihydrated orthorhombic and anhydrous monoclinic forms of uric acid (UA) have been investigated spectrophotometrically at different temperatures (2.6-50.0 °C). Data have also been collected for the different solubilities as a function of pH and have been assigned to the different species of uric acid in protolytic equilibrium at...

The growth morphology of sodium urate crystals is established by means of the PBC theory. There are many F faces which all could theoretically appear during growth: {100}, {010}, {10}, {001}, {011}, {101}, {11} and {111}. On the other hand, the experimental growth morphology is rather poor. The crystals are needles elongated along the c axis. They...

Periodic polysynthetic twins (PPT) of n-C34H70 and n-C36H74 were obtained by evaporating solutions of n-heptane in the range 25–50δ C; their occurrence was revealed by interlaced spiral patterns observed on their growth micromorphology. PPT often occur at the grain boundary between flat crystallites which appear to be rotated on 001 planes; the ori...

Anhydrous and hydrated uric acid crystals which frequently occur in human urolithiasis have been grown from pure aqueous solutions at 25 and 37°C. The appearance domain of either modification is given as a function of initial uric acid concentration at pH values ranging from 3.0 to 5.5. The present paper mostly deals with the anhydrous phase and it...

Crystals of pure n-C34H70 grown from heptane solutions at low temperature (278-283 K) exhibit syntactic coalescences between monoclinic and orthorhombic polymorphs. The stackings of the vertical paraffin chains on the tilted ones are revealed by growth spirals which develop on the (001) common faces of the aggregates. From the interaction energy ca...

Carlosturanite, a mineral with a serpentine-like structure, grows mainly with a fibrous habit. We have analyzed samples with both pure carlosturanite and associations of carlosturanite and chrysotile using micro-Raman spectroscopy, a quick and non-destructive method of identifying different materials and mineral phases through direct analysis of bu...