Tags: Analytical Seminar


Advancements in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to Improve Online Elemental Analysis of Aerosols

Aerosols can have significant impact on the environment and health based on their chemical composition. It’s imperative to understand the chemical composition at the single particle level as it has influence on ice nucleation potential, cloud condensing nuclei potential and radiative forcing.1 Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging technique for online analysis of single particle aerosol composition. LIBS requires no vacuum…


Using Ultrahigh Resolution Mass Spectrometry to Understand the Source, Transformations, and Fate of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Rainwater

Earth’s atmosphere stores a significant amount of organic carbon as part of the global carbon cycle. The fate of organic carbon compounds in the atmosphere are oxidation into inorganic carbon or deposition to Earth’s surface.1 Wet deposition is the most efficient processes, where compounds are dissolved in rainwater and are transported during precipitation.2 The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content of rainwater can provide information about…


A Bone Proteomic Approach to Body Decomposition for Forensic Investigations

Bone proteomic methods devised for fields such as archeology and paleontology have been implemented to resolve the challenge of accurate post-mortem interval (PMI), time of death, estimation in forensic investigations. However, most of these methods have been optimized to extract a large variety of proteins without taking into account the laboratory-induced decay and post-translational modifications (PTMs). Since PTMs can be used as markers of…


Application of Quasi-Elastic Light Scattering (QELS) Spectroscopy to Probe Single Aerosol Particle Microphysics

Atmospheric aerosol particles both directly and indirectly affect the climate, and the extent of their effects is directly related to the physicochemical properties of the aerosol particle(s).1 Aerosol particles in the atmosphere can interact directly with incoming radiation and uptake water to activate into cloud droplets. Instrumentation has been developed to measure surface tension, viscosity, hygroscopicity, phase state, and water…


Insight into Reactive Oxygen Species Utilizing Fluorescence Probes

Biologically, reactive species are an important group of molecules that have been linked with cellular functions such as cellular division, ATP synthesis, signaling, apoptosis, and other key processes. These compounds are classified relative to their elemental counterparts, with the most prominently studied being reactive nitrogen, sulfur, and, most commonly, oxygen species. As such, the study of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has played an…


Processes That Govern the Direct and Indirect Climate Effects of Carbonaceous Aerosol from Biomass Burning and Plastic Pollution

The Schnitzler research group focuses on the fate and impact of carbonaceous aerosols, nanoparticles suspended in air, generated from biomass burning and plastic pollution. These particles impact climate directly by interacting with solar and terrestrial radiation and indirectly by altering cloud formation and properties. Due to their small dimensions, these particles can stay suspended in the atmosphere for a week or two, during which time…


Using Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry to Determine the Stereochemistry of Biopolymer Building Blocks

Amino acids and carbohydrates are involved in many biological process which are critical in determining their accurate characterization. These monosaccharide percussors are fundamental building blocks to their functionality such as cell-cell recognition, cellular adhesion, protein folding and solubility, metabolism, and immune/host pathogen response. All amino acids, except glycine, exist in two stereochemical forms, with the L-form being most…


Improving Performance of an Aethalometer for Measuring Aerosol Absorption

Fossil fuel and biomass combustion releases aerosols into Earth’s atmosphere which strongly absorb incoming solar radiation, contributing significantly to positive radiative forcing (global warming). Given the uncertainty on the extent of this warming effect by aerosols (Alexander et al., 2013), it is paramount that aerosol absorption be measured accurately for translation to reliable climate models. The Aethalometer measures the attenuation of…


Low-cost Approaches for Atmospheric Sensing

The atmosphere is a complex mixture of gases and aerosols that range in concentration from the sub-part-per-billion level up to many percent, and which vary with both time and space.  There are numerous analytical challenges associated with study of the atmosphere, and studies focused on understanding atmospheric chemistry have traditionally required numerous expensive, often custom-built instruments that are cost-prohibitive for many…


The Great ESKAPEE: Multi-Omic Methods for Bacterial Profiling Using HILIC-IM-MS

The prominence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains has raised concern for the efficacy of currently available antibiotics. Point-of-care utilization of existing drug therapies require strain specific identification of pathogens, which often demands tedious sample preparation strategies and tailored analytical methods. The emergence of multi-omics approaches has empowered scientists to answer complex systems biology questions regarding…
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