Focus: Fine particulate matter

Why do mountain ranges look blue on some days, but then a completely different color during sunrise or sunset? Why have some cities set up low-emission zones? Lots of questions with one answer: Because of aerosols, or finely dispersed solid or liquid matter in the air. If the matter is solid, it is called fine particulate matter. Depending on its origin, chemical composition, quantity and size, it can be hazardous to people and the environment. Leading scientists will discuss these challenges at the analytica Conference, which is being held in conjunction with analytica at the ICM – Internationales Congress Center München from April 1–3.

To protect people from fine particulate matter that is hazardous to their health, scientists in various disciplines have been researching aerosols for years. One of the greatest challenges is chemical and biochemical analysis, which is why "Aerosols and Health" is a main theme of the analytica Conference in Munich. On the first day of the conference (April 1), Professor Ralf Zimmermann, a chemist at Rostock University and Munich's Helmholtz Center—the German Research Center for Health and the Environment—will lead a full-day session on this topic. A total of 14 lectures from scientists from Germany, Australia, Finland, Great Britain, Canada, Norway, Switzerland the United State are planned. They will explain how aerosols are characterized, how they make their way through the body, and how they impact our health. Among other things, they will introduce studies on the combustion of diesel, marine diesel, biodiesel and biomass and their effects as well as the share of nanoparticles in the aerosols that are created. 

Nanoparticles—i.e. particles that are up to 100 nanometers in diameter—can be very successful at conquering the human body. However, allergies can also be triggered by pollen, which is approximately ten micrometers in diameter. Besides allergies, fine particulate matter can also cause asthma as well as other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Organic compounds account for some 70 percent of all dry particulate matter and several hundred of those compounds can be detected in the particles. Analytical chemistry faces some major challenges in this area. They start with the question of what the best way is to "collect" the particles and how complex the samples are that are taken this way. Chromatography separation techniques with subsequent mass-spectrometry analysis are the methods of choice, and they are increasingly being refined for the task at hand. Techniques based on mass spectrometry with ultrahigh resolution or modern online analysis techniques are still used to detect gas and particle phases.

Besides the topic of fine particulate matter, sessions on water analysis, metabolomics and proteomics are also on the agenda. As a result, the analytica Conference covers the entire range of analysis topics. The current program of events is available online at www.analytica.de/conference or at www.gdch.de/analyticaconf2014. Admission to the conference is included in the price of admission to the fair. 

Germany’s three leading scientific associations—the GDCh (German Chemical Society), the GBM (Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and the DGKL (German Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine)—are responsible for the program of events at the analytica Conference from April 1–3.