Internship Master: Method development for the analysis of atmospheric microplastics by Pyrolysis-GC-MS

Discipline : CERI EE

Line Manager : Nadine Locoge

Location : IMT NORD EUROPE, CERI EE, 941 rue Charles Bourseul, 59500 Douai

Type of contract : Master internship, duration 4-6 months.

Summer internship in Analytical Chemistry for Atmospheric Chemistry

Microplastics have nowadays been observed in every compartment of the environment. However, in the atmosphere, the presence of this new pollutant is not very well documented and its fate not well understood. So far, atmospheric microplastic particles have been observed in megacities, in remote mountain areas and even over the open ocean, albeit in small number concentrations.

The analysis of this new pollutant is still evolving and currently no standard method exists to observe microplastics from the atmosphere. Observations using spectroscopic techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) or Raman spectroscopy, give information about the number concentration of microplastics and their composition (type of polymers) but are very time consuming and difficult to automate. Pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC-MS) on the other hand gives no information on the quantity of particles, but gives compositional information on mass of different polymers present in the microplastic sample and is easier to automate.

In the frame of several projects on microplastics in the atmosphere, our lab has recently acquired a pyrolizer installed on a GC-MS  to complement other microplastic analysis methods present in the lab. The internship proposes to (1) investigate the different types of polymers that can be analysed by Pyr-GC-MS through a rigorous bibliographic study; (2) develop and optimize a method to analyse the target polymers on the new Pyr-GC-MS; (3) evaluate matrix effects, detection limits and quantification limits for the optimized method and (4) test the method on environmental samples.

Working languages are French & English.

Expected starting date: February-March 2025

Supervisor:  Dr. Liselotte Tinel

For further information on the internship, please contact Dr. TINEL Liselotte (Liselotte.tinel@imt-nord-europe.fr). For any administrative information, please contact the Human Resources Department: jobs@imt-nord-europe.fr