Understanding atmospheric chemistry processes

Air particulate matter is known for its adverse impact on heath, as well as on ever discussed climate changes. The building blocks of particulate matter are metals, salts, organic species, and elemental carbon. While inorganics are well characterized, only limited information is available on organics.

The organics can be differentiated on polar and nonpolar species. Nonpolar and slightly polar compounds are directly related to primary emissions, and are quite well characterized using organic solvent extraction and GC/MS. However, the interest of our laboratory lies in polar organics, which are formed from the atmospheric oxidation of volatile organics species (secondary aerosol formation). Because of their reactivity, polar species are suspected to have impact both on our health and climate changes.

Isolation of biologically active molecules from plant matrices

Various bioactive molecules are today isolated and/or synthesized to be used in products for food and drug industry. Our work involves development of selective isolation methods, preferentially using nontoxic solvents such as carbon dioxide and water, for antioxidants, vitamins, essential oils and other important plant components. Identification of those species is performed using chromatographic techniques with mass spectrometric detection.

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