Analysing the Environmental Durability and Chrysotile Content of Asbestos Cement Products by FT-IR Spectroscopy

The aim of this paper is to examine the environmental resistance and chrysotile content of different asbestos cement products and to prove the relationship between these two factors by analytical results. The paper includes Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic analysis of asbestos cement pipes and asbestos cement products with corrugated and flat characteristics. The methodology of the study is based on FT-IR spectroscopy and general statistical approaches, and the results obtained are compared using correlation analysis. The background to the topic is that asbestos cement products are still widely used today despite their harmful effects on health, contrary to European Union asbestos-free targets. A damaged and eroded asbestos cement product loses several grams of asbestos and cement per year from its matrix structure, which is exacerbated by exposure to various environmental influences. The match rate of the chrysotile spectrum for analysed samples has been over 50 % in each case. In the number of measurements, the chrysotile detection rate was 7.64 % higher for degraded and eroded samples. In addition, in the samples exposed to environmental factors, the percentage variance was approximately 10 % or higher, with the exception of asbestos cement pipes. The results provide a basis for situational awareness options. Analytic practitioners, material science researchers, and analysts can use them.