Klima Hero Istock-1218578263 Alexey Fedoren

Equipment

The department for Organic Environmental Chemistry is equipped with techniques and instruments for the trace analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and emerging contaminants in a variety of environmental matrices like sediment, water, air, and biota as well as mercury and its species in the atmosphere. The mass spectrometric (MS) determination of organic compounds is based on low resolution single and tandem MS instruments coupled to gas or liquid chromatography. The determination of organic compounds is based on a combination of gas or liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (MS). Mass spectrometers include low resolution single and tandem instruments as well as high resolution devices. Atmospheric mercury is determined with automated analyzers in the gas- and particulate phase using atomic fluorescence (AF) and atomic absorption (AA) spectroscopy.

Sampling

  • High and low-volume sampling equipment for surface water
  • Sampling equipment for sediment and biota
  • High-volume sampling equipment for air
  • Autonomous low-volume sampling system for ambient air
  • Passive samplers for ambient air

Sample preparation

  • Cleanroom (approx. 100 m2) for organic trace analysis
  • Liquid/liquid- and liquid/solid-extraction techniques, e.g. solid phase extraction (SPE) or accelerated solvent extraction (ASE, Dionex ASE 350)
  • Automated preparation and clean-up for water samples (Freestyle XANA, LCTech)
  • Cleanup- and automated concentration techniques, e.g. flowtherm optocontrol s Barkey
  • Multiphase Carbon/Hydrogen/Moisture Determinator, RC612 LECO

Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

  • GC-MS (EI, CI), Agilent Technologies 5975
  • GC-MS/MS (EI, CI), Agilent Technologies 7000
  • GC-QTOF (EI, CI), Agilent Technologies 7250

Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS)

  • LC-MS/MS (ESI, APCI), Applied Biosystems API 4000, HPLC Agilent Technologies 1100
  • LC-MS/MS (ESI, APPI, APCI), Agilent Technologies 6490, UHPLC Agilent Technologies 1290
  • LC-QTOF (ESI, APPI, APCI), Agilent Technologies 6546, UHPLC Agilent Technologies 1290
  • HPLC Agilent Technologies 1260

Automated in-situ analysers for mercury and its species

  • Mercury analyzer type Tekran 2537A/B (atomic fluorescence)
  • Mercury analyzer type LUMEX RA-915-AM (atomic absorption)
  • Mercury Speciation Unit type Tekran 1100 and 1135 in combination with Tekran 2537 A/B (differentiated concentration measurement of gaseous elemental mercury, reactive gaseous mercury, and particle bound mercury)