From 11th to 12th of May 2023, the Young Analytical Scientist’s Forum (Junganalytiker*innenforum, JA*F) of the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry (ASAC) took place at the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry at the Montanuniversität Leoben. The symposium aimed at young scientists comprises talks and poster presentations of Master students, PhD students and early-career PostDocs in various fields of Analytical Chemistry.
On 11th of May, two posters linked to the project TecEUS were presented by exchange student Doreen Mirembe (Makerere University Kampala, Uganda) and Simone Trimmel (MUL). Doreen’s poster had the title “Assessment of levels of trace elements (TEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air in the city of Kampala” and gave an overview of her work with wet and dry precipitate samples from Kampala. In a collaboration with MUL, the measurement procedure validated for 7 plant CRMs was applied in a multielement analysis, including the measurement of TCEs.
Simone presented a poster named “Green facades as model systems for anthropogenic emissions of technology-critical elements”. The poster showed the sampling strategy of the leaf samples taken from the facades of MA31 and MA48 and gave a summary of the findings. Differences in multielemental patterns linked to sampling month, storey and plant species discovered in 3- and 4-way Analyses of variances (ANOVAs) were presented. In addition, an indication of anthropogenic Ta-emissions to the urban spheres of Vienna was found by the investigation of Nb/Ta ratios in the leaf digests.
TecEUS was also presented by Simone Trimmel in a broader context in the lecture “Determination of 48 elements in environmental samples by ICP-MS/MS with a focus on technology-critical elements”. The lecture was given on 12th of May linked to the receipt of the Young Analytical Scientist’s award for the paper published in January this year “Determination of 48 elements in 7 plant CRMs by ICP-MS/MS with a focus on technology-critical elements” (Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 415, 1159-1172, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00216-022-04497-3).
