PhD supervisor: Prof Egmont Rohwer

Date:     Friday, 20 September 2013

Time:    11:30 - 12:30

Venue: The Mendeleev (2.32) – Chemistry Building

A simple silicone rubber sampler, developed in-house, for the solvent free concentration of trace organic analytes from soil will be presented. The silicone rubber sampler could be thermally desorbed into a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS) or a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (GCxGC-TOFMS). An investigation of anomalous patterns of hydrocarbons in desert sand to help establish a new hypothesis on the origin of the well-known Fairy Circles of Namibia will be described. An overview of the different hypotheses will also be given.

Enquiries; Prof Simon Lotz, Tel. 0124202800 or e-mail: [email protected]