2006 Annual Report

What’s New at the UNL Water Sciences Laboratory

By Daniel D. Snow, Ph.D.
Director of Laboratory Services
UNL Water Sciences Laboratory

Since the last Water Current, faculty and staff at the UNL Water Sciences Laboratory (WSL) met with scientists in the U.S Geological Survey Organic Geochemistry Research Group at Lawrence , Kan. to learn about new techniques for measuring pharmaceuticals and algal toxins in water.

Dave Cassada, Teyona Damon, and Dan Snow visited with Mike Meyer, Keith Leftin, and Jennifer Graham of the USGS group to discuss new techniques for analyzing these and other emerging contaminants using the latest instrumentation. The WSL is planning to run “split samples” this year with the USGS laboratory as a comparison to help validate and verify the accuracy of several new methods developed for these contaminants.

WSL staff also developed new techniques using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry to identify unknown chemicals to support remediation research in the UNL School of Natural Resources (SNR).

SNR researchers have been testing different approaches to clean-up contaminated soil and water and found that each can produce different intermediates or by-products. Very often the composition of these intermediates must be determined to help understand the chemical reactions and whether or not these compounds are harmful.

The Lab’s Thermofinnigan LCQ “ion trap” mass spectrometer has been especially useful in identifying intermediates formed during remediation experiments on RDX, a nitrogen-based high explosive compound, as well as with commonly used herbicides such as metolachlor and acetochlor.

Recent installation of a radioactivity detector on the LCQ will allow for detection and identification of unknowns produced by “tagged” or labeled chemicals used to test remediation and degradation chemistries.

The WSL has nearly completed updates to its corrosives facility to handle processing samples for trace element analysis using the new Platform XS inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).

Two badly corroded fume hoods were replaced last fall with new and larger Kewanee hoods in the corrosives lab. A CEM microwave digestion system, purchased with IANR equipment funds in cooperation with the UNL Veterinary Diagnostic Center , was also installed in this area. Both improvements will help with more rapid preparation of samples for analysis using the ICP-MS with less chance for contamination during processing.

As a bonus, new methods are also being developed to speed processing samples for elemental nitrogen and phosphorus using the CEM microwave digestor and the SEAL AQ2 autoanalyzer.