Christiane Vitzhum von Eckstaedt (PhD Student)
Curtin University of Technology

Project Title
Sourcing volatile organics in industrial emissions by compound specific isotope analysis

Biography
Christiane Vitzthum von Eckstaedt is a PhD student at Curtin University of Technology in Perth. She obtained her Diplom (equal to Masters) in 2003 at University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). She then worked in the “sansed” project between a German and Vietnamese university collecting climatologically data for irrigation & soil studies.  In 2005 Christiane worked as a scientific assistant at Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle (UFZ, Germany). She organised the construction & procedure of batch experiments to study in-situ transformation processes of chlorinated compounds in gradient zones of rhizopheres by using isotopic analysis. In 2006 she came to Perth as a research assistant at Curtin University for geochemistry laboratory work.

Start Date
November 2006

Project Details
The ratio of the stable isotopes Carbon (13C to 12C) or Hydrogen (D to H) of an individual organic compound reflects its origin(s) and can be measured in a complex mixture with a gas chromatography-isotope ratio monitoring mass spectrometer (GC-ir-MS). The use of thermal desorption linked to a GC-ir-MS to determine 13C/12C of VOCs in airborne samples has been developed by Curtin University (Turner et al. 2006). This method can be used to determine the contribution of source(s) of VOCs, and therefore track the fate of the VOC from its source to its deposition. D/H of VOCs by GC-ir-MS should show even greater differences because the largest mass difference of all the stable isotopes is between H and D. A 2-pronged stable isotope approach and principle component analysis will be developed to assess sources of VOCs and PAHs in different types of samples (e.g. industrial emissions, petroleum emissions and bush/forest fires).