Analytical Chemistry


 

The workgroup for Instrumental analysis and hyphenated techniques of the Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Karst (AC-WWU) focuses on the development of novel analytical methods and instruments for biological, environmental and material analytical challenges. The epicentre of the research is in the area of interfacing between analytical techniques, especially between chromatography or capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry with soft ionisation methods at atmospheric pressure or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. These systems are especially developed and optimised for the speciation analysis. The workgroup is one of the largest of its kind in Germany.
AC-WWU has to different tasks in the project: On the one hand they will synthesise and modify nanoparticles on the basis of Lanthanoid Phosphate. On the other hand they will develop methods for the determination of the elemental composition of nanoparticles using ICP-MS including laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS).

The AC-WWU is striving towards the development of homogeneous and therefore very fast bioassays with functionalised nanoparticles. This project makes it possible to understand the material aspect better and to focus on its optimisation. If the project is successful, that will open the way to the development of novel medical diagnostic test kits based on nanoparticles, which have a significant market potential. Also in this respect, cooperation with not only companies in the analytical fields but also with the medical clinic is of major interest.