Congratulations to Irina Nistorescu on the award of an outstanding student research presentation at the Canadian Society for Chemistry annual meeting held this past June in Winnipeg, MB!! Irina presented research on the extension of our PFAS passive sampling technique from her work over the past year, with samples being collected in all sorts of exciting places!
NSERC CGS-M Award for Emma McLay
Congratulations to Emma on the receipt of an NSERC CGS-M award to support their graduate studies over the coming year! Emma is exploring heterogeneous reaction mechanisms in urban environments linked to air quality through field and lab experiments.
A new method for gaseous total fluorine determination from Stephen Ye!
PhD researcher Stephen Ye (VDB/Young Groups) has developed a new total elemental technique for use in studying gaseous organofluorine molecules released from commercial products or present in the atmosphere. This work was published by the ACS in Environmental Science & Technology Letters and is available as a preprint through ChemRxiv.
Precip Collection Platform Publication!
Congrats to PhD students Alessia Colussi (VDB/Young Groups) and Daniel Persaud (Young Group) on their new publication in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, where they demonstrate the utility of affordable off-grid precipitation samplers for long-term collection of atmospheric pollutants deposited through wet and dry deposition processes. Many students have contributed to this project over the years, ranging from undergraduates through postdocs. We are highly grateful for the support to develop these new tools from a wide variety of funding sources and the input and ongoing support of our academic and government collaborators where these are being put to use.
The Faculty of Science at York University helped us to make a video abstract for this work, drawing off photos and datasets collected over several years, as we progressively validated these new research tools. You can check it out on YouTube.
Eric finished his MSc! Congratulations!!
In early June, Eric defended his MSc on a new methodology to passively collect atmospheric PFAS. After some intensive lab characterization, Eric deployed his samplers around several locations in the GTHA and in endangered whale habitats in Québec and British Columbia. These were then subjected to a battery of analytical determinations so we could learn about spatial and temporal trends of these contaminants. Well done, Eric, and congratulations!
Congratulations Eric - 2023 CSC Environment Division Poster Award!
Congratulations to Eric Vanhauwaert on receipt of a student poster award for his work on atmospheric passive sampling of PFAS at the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s annual meeting in Vancouver this past June! The Environment Division showcased his work alongside the other award winners in a special online symposium.!!
Indoor Capstone Conference - but not the end of indoor chem
The Capstone Conference for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Chemistry of the Indoor Environment program was held from Oct 18-20 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Many projects from the group and our collaborators were presented. It was great that the community had this final opportunity to come together to share their findings (and to get a great group photo)! While the program may be at an end, it will not be the end of our work on indoor atmospheric chemistry!!
New GC-MS method for PFCA analysis in environmental samples!
PhD researcher Stephen (RenXi) Ye has developed the first GC-MS method capable of separating and quantifying C2-C14 perfluorinated carboxylic acids in environmental samples. The novel derivatization was designed to yield excellent selectivity with common GC stationary phases, plus we got explore H2 as a carrier gas! We applied this to tap, rain, and ocean water; as well as atmospheric sample extracts! Read more in the full manuscript, published this week in Analytical Chemistry:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c00593
Chalisa presents at the 51st Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry Conference in Peterborough
Last Saturday, with a group of colleagues from York University, Chalisa presented her research on the recovery of reduced nitrogen species from complex marine matrices in the Environmental and Analytical symposium. The day was full of presentations, posters, and meeting other chemistry enthusiasts from across Ontario! Thanks for representing the team Chalisa!
Inbound Publications Quadruple the Fun!
Congratulations to group members and alumni Leigh, Melodie, Leyla, and York U collaborator Andrea! The past two months have seen a flurry of publications from the group which originated through collaborations spawned during the pandemic or were completed after fieldwork was delayed by it. Great team perseverance and adaptability on display to create opportunities with wonderful researchers across Canada and internationally!
L. R. Crilley, M. Lao, L. Salehpoor, and T. C. VandenBoer*. An instrument to measure and speciate the total reactive nitrogen budget indoors: description and field measurements. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 2023. Accepted. DOI:10.1039/D2EM00446A
C. E. Lawrence, P. Casson, R. Brandt, J. J. Schwab, J. E. Dukett, P. Snyder, E. Yerger, D. Kelting, T. C. VandenBoer, and S. Lance*. Long-term monitoring of cloud water chemistry at Whiteface Mountain: the emergence of a new chemical regime. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 2023. 23:1619-1639. DOI:10.5194/acp-2022-313.
A. A. Angelucci, L. R. Crilley, R. Richardson, T. Valkenburg, P. S. Monks, J. M. Roberts, R. Sommariva*, and T. C. VandenBoer*. Elevated levels of chloramines and chlorine detected near an indoor sports complex. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 2023. DOI:10.1039/D2EM00411A
A. D. Stubbs, M. Lao, C. Wang, J. P. D. Abbatt, J. Hoffnagle, T. C. VandenBoer*, and T. F. Kahan*. Near-source hypochlorous acid emissions from indoor bleach cleaning. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. 2023. 25:56-65. DOI:10.1039/D2EM00405D