An exciting collaboration between analytical chemists, archaeologists, and boat experts occurred recently!

Archemy research group investigated the composition of a mysterious dark coating material from a historical boat called “Lodi”. Our PhD student Shidong used solvent extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to understand the composition of the coating.

As it turns out, the ship was covered by a mixture of coal and pine tar. Large amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were detected with minor quantities of abietic diterpenoids.

As a thank-you gesture, Archemy group and guests from the analytical chemistry department were invited to sail with the “Lodi” on Emajõgi. We celebrated the beginning of the academic year, looked back on our summer, and made plans for the new academic year.