Peaks of Interest

Research on plastics in aquatic environments is well-established, but little is known about their presence, pathways, and effects in soil ecosystems. The iMulch project aims to address this need as well as the growing concern of plastic pollution in soils. Focusing on developing and validating methods to detect micro- and macroplastics in soils and drainage waters, with an emphasis on how drainage water impacts municipal wastewater treatment, a key aspect of the study is analyzing plastic emissions from agricultural mulch films. We spoke to Carmen Wolf of the Institute for Environment and Energy, Technology and Analytics e.V. (IUTA) in Duisburg, Germany, corresponding author of a recent paper on the project, about the investigations involved and how separation science was used in their experimentation.

With growing concerns over PFAS in food, reliable detection methods are essential for safety and compliance. This e-book explores advanced techniques for analyzing PFAS in various food matrices.

A new type of micro-gas chromatography column was fabricated using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) to circumvent manufacturing issues faced by other micro-GC systems.

From June 12–13, 2025, the 3rd Advances in Separation Science Workshop will take take place in Gembloux, Belgium.