Every year the Katritzky scholarship is rewarded to a first-year chemistry MSc student at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu. The scholarship was established in memory of Professor Alan Roy Katritzky, the Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu. We are glad to announce that this year the scholarship was awarded to a member of our Analytical Chemistry Chair – Silvia Hiie Aabloo!
Silvia Hiie Aabloo
Silvia is doing her MSc project in the Cultural Heritage workgroup, supervised by Dr. Anu Teearu-Ojakäär and Dr. Signe Vahur. Her research revolves around the study of matrix materials used in the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) analysis. MALDI is a suitable ionization technique for the analysis of large and poorly soluble molecules, which has been used somewhat for the analysis of cultural heritage objects. However, research is still needed to find suitable matrix materials for different cultural heritage materials. An interview with Silvia after receiving the scholarship can be found here (in Estonian).
A recent ranking of the world universities has been published by The Times Higher Education (THE). THE is a British journal known for the most reliable rankings of the world’s universities. For the first time, the University of Tartu has reached the top 250!
The 2023 list includes 1799 universities from 104 countries and regions. For the seventh year in a row, the winner in this ranking is the University of Oxford, followed by Harvard University, and the third place is shared by the University of Cambridge and Standford University.
The performance indicators that are taken into account when calculating the ranking were grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment, 30% of the overall score); research (volume, income, and reputation, 30%); citations (research influence, 30%); international outlook (staff, students, and research, 7.5%); and industry income (knowledge transfer, 2.5%). The biggest strength of the University of Tartu is its citations per paper – in this area the UT lands at position 115.
The UT has been represented in this worldwide ranking list since 2011. In recent years, the position has consistently improved. Toomas Asser, the Rector of the University of Tartu says that this high ranking affirms the very good level of our academic community and the relevance of the objectives. The Rector also added that the fact that the research and higher education of Estonian’s national university is on the same level as the world’s top universities is an important achievement for the whole Estonia.
Two PhD students of our Analytical Chemistry Chair – Larissa and Ngan – recently attended an exciting Summer School: Automation and miniaturization in sample preparation, 13 – 15 September 2022, Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové (Czech Republic).
Group photo provided by Charles University
Larissa: “The main topics of the summer school were supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) in liquid chromatography, automation of extraction procedures in flow systems, and micro-SPE. Personally, the topics that stood out the most to me were SFE and micro-SPE, especially the latter, because of how straightforward, and yet tricky, this sample preparation technique is. In the afternoon workshops, we analyzed eucalyptus plant with SFE by varying some parameters (e.g., temperature, extraction time, etc.) and we were able to build our own pipette tip for micro-SPE. Apart from the great knowledge acquired, the summer school was well-organized, and I was able to meet and connect with people from different countries.“
Ngan: “Despite this was the first time the summer school was organized in the Department of Analytical Chemistry, I felt a warm welcome from the host. Professors from different fields at Charles University and Lund University made sure we all have take-home knowledge and demonstration of many techniques. My favorite part was about Extraction Disks, for example using Polycaprolactone – Graphene Nanoplatelets to preconcentrate the analyte. This is such a clever idea to minimize the sample preparation process and control lab waste.’’
Ngan and Larissa would like to thank FMTDK for the financial support.
Eucalyptus plant extract with SFE – micro SPE pipette
The new EACH and AMS intake has started exploring Tartu and with it, Estonian history and culture!
Merili (in the picture – in the middle of the front row), one of the newest EACH master students wrote about their visit to ERM:
“Last Saturday, a group of us visited the Estonian National Museum (ERM). We first got an overview of the main exhibition with a tour guide and then explored the rest of the museum ourselves. The design and interactivity of the exhibitions were amazing, and there was a lot to see, from relics of the stone age to beautiful artwork from the Golden Age of Estonian Art! What really made the museum visit special was the fact that while we were there, the President of Estonia himself was giving a tour there. So the day definitely was a crash course to Estonia!”
From the 27th of August to the 2nd of September, two members of our Chair of Analytical Chemistry – Ngan and Larissa – attended the 24th International Mass Spectrometry Conference (IMSC 2022) in Maastricht, The Netherlands. They both presented their posters under section B: Instrumentation and methods. All abstracts of the posters can be found in the abstract book.
Larissa: “The topics that stood out the most to me were proteomics and metabolomics, especially in the field of single-cell analysis. Overall, the talks were very interesting because there was a huge variety in what kind of investigated samples. Besides, vendors were able to present their latest products, mainly focused on LC-MS/MS instrumentation.”
Ngan: “The conference program had so diverse topics. Personally, I loved the talk by Livia S. Eberlin – a Curt Brunnée awardee about Guiding Medical Decisions with the MasSpec Pen Technology. Different workshops were held in the end of each day, for example: FeMS (females in MS), Forensics, and Career workshops in which professors, vendors, and recruiters gave speeches to inspire students to do internship, to find balance in work-life, or to connect mentees and mentors. The first day of the IMSC 2022 conference coincidentally happened to be on my birthday which made this experience very special and memorable to me. I had a chance to open my eyes and see the world through the MS glasses.”
Maastricht
Larissa’s poster was about derivatization-targeted analysis, where derivatization with diethyl ethoxymethylenemalonate (DEEMM) was combined with neutral loss scan mode for the detection of amino compounds.
Ngan presented her poster about Coumarin-based derivatization reagent for LC-MS analysis of amino acids. In this study, she reported a first time synthesized fluorogenic derivatization reagent in UT lab named Coumarin151-N-succinimidyl Carbamate (Cou151DSC) using HPLC compatible with different detectors: FLD or UV and ESI-MS/MS. An analytical method for derivatization of amino acids was developed for Kvass (Estonian soft drinks) as a demonstration. The results were compared with a commercially available reagent (6-Aminoquinolyl-N-Hydroxysuccinimidyl Carbamate aka 6-AQC) which has been commonly employed in different applications for 30 years.
Larissa would like to thank the Estonian Education and Youth Board for the Dora+ short-term mobility scholarship. Ngan would like to thank the Chair of Analytical Chemistry for the financial support.
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.
In this study, multidimensional front-face fluorescence spectroscopy measured from surfaces using a fiber optic probe was assessed as a non-invasive and non-destructive method for the analysis of components in natural textile dyes. Multidimensional fluorescence data was acquired for a collection of wool yarns dyed with natural dyes (31 dyed wool yarn samples that were self-dyed with 18 different natural dyes) that were used as references in a case study of two historical textiles for which liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used as a confirmatory technique.
Self-dyed reference yarnsSelection of characteristic EEMs of self-dyed reference samples
Natural dyes are multicomponent mixtures and can originate from different sources (e.g., plants, insects, and fungi). Due to their complex chemical composition and the inherent lability (photooxidative fading and bleaching), the analysis of natural dyes can be quite challenging and in order to analyze dyes on textiles, it is often best to combine different analytical methods. However, for the analysis of dyes, common and often the most informative methods, like chromatographic separations coupled with different detectors, are all invasive/destructive. The aim of this work was to explore the potential and limitations of fluorescence spectroscopy in analyzing natural dyes from dyed wool yarns using EEMs (excitation-emission matrices), measured directly from the surface of the objects, non-destructively and without any sample preparation.
To demonstrate the utility of the fluorescence method, analysis was conducted on two case study samples – fibers from historical artifacts. Comparing the EEMs of the reference yarns with our unknown case study samples, we were able to identify that dye from a plant of the Rubiaceae family (bedstraws and madders) was used for dyeing the case study samples.
Here you can find the 50-day free access to the article.
One of the case study objects; Tapestry “Solomon is receiving a bride. Solomon Court” (year of production 1547); Textile sample was obtained from the Conservation and Digitization Centre Kanut (Estonia).
On the 3.-6. of July, a Joint International Conference of the “Functional Materials and Nanotechnologies and Nanotechnology and Innovation in the Baltic Sea Region” FM&NT – NIBS 2022 was held in Riga, Latvia at the House of Science, Academic Centre of the University of Latvia. Our project was represented by Dr. Rünno Lõhmus and PhD student Käthi Niman.
The focus of the conference was dedicated to four main topics: Nanomaterials and technologies, Functional Materials, Green Energy and Environment, and Bioengineering materials and biotechnologies. Several lectures were held in both a larger auditorium and in parallel sessions in smaller groups. On the 4th of July, a poster session on the mentioned topics took place. Altogether there were 79 oral and 120 poster presentations. On July 5th, a panel discussion was held on the topic “From lab to fab. What it takes to make a business out of university research.”, which gave an interesting insight into what it takes to create a start-up in the scientific field.
Over the course of four days, several interesting developments in the field of nanotechnologies, functional materials, and biosensors were introduced, which might prove of use in the field of cultural heritage conservation. From thin film and colored glass solar panels to graphene-based sensors, several topics discussed in the numerous presentations sparked ideas of potential use in art and architecture conservation and restauration. As an example, in one oral presentation, given by Dr. Kestutis Staliunas, laser application widening possibilities were discussed. More in detail, in the talk “Nanostructures for intracavity spatial filtering in microlasers,” the authors proposed an interesting idea to exploit photonic microstructures (such as photonic crystals and micro-modulated thin films) to enhance the quality of spatial quality of emitted radiation in microlasers.
The conference was very useful and created many personal contacts for future potential collaboration.
From the 28th of June to the 1st of July 2022, Dr Signe Vahur, Dr Anu Teearu-Ojakäär from our UT Analytical Chemistry Cultural Heritage Investigation group, and PhD student Shidong Chen from the Archemy group attended the 5th international inArt2022 conference in Paris, France.
Anu, Shidong, and Signe
InArt is a conference where professionals from different disciplines (for example, chemistry, archaeology, conservation, biology, etc.) can present and discuss the analysis results using a limited amount of samples or non-invasive approaches and conservation strategies of cultural heritage objects. The conference included altogether 47 oral presentations and three poster sessions with 135 posters, different visit options (starting with the National Centre for Research and Restoration in French Museums (C2RMF) to a walking tour in the historical centre of Paris), and dinner at the hotel The Westin Paris.
Investigations from Fayum mummy portraits to street art
Four days were filled with a wide range of interesting presentations, from hyperspectral imaging and material instrumental analysis of different cultural heritage (paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, etc.) and archaeological objects to investigations of chemical and physical degradation mechanisms of various materials.
Some of the most interesting talks included the presentation by Prof Francesca Modugno (from the University of Pisa) about the SuPerStAr project dedicated to the studying and preservation of street art and Dr Lucile Brunel-Duverger (from French Museums Research and Restoration Center) about the analysis of madder lake dyes in the Fayum portraits (from 1st to 4th century A.D). Also should be highlighted the presentations by Dr Maria Filomena Guerra (from French Museums Research and Restoration Center) on the analysis of objects covered with gold leaf and foil from the Egyptian Middle Kindom period, Dr Laura Pagnin (from the Polytechnic University of Milan) about data fusion of Py-GC-MS and FT-IR data to determine degradation in modern paints, and also Loïc Forma (from The National Heritage Institute in Paris) who talked about how to protect cultural heritage objects from vibrational damages. There were many eye-catching poster presentations, however worth mentioning is the poster made by Dr Louise Chassouant and her colleagues on the chemical and palaeobotanical study of Roman amphorae. In their research, they developed a multidisciplinary approach (applied in archaeometry techniques) to analyse the original content of the amphorae (e.g. components of wine, oils, etc.) and determine the waterproof resin coating components in the internal surface.
The highlights of our recent results
Signe presenting her poster
Anu presenting her poster
Shidong presenting his poster
At the inArt2022 conference, we had three poster presentations from which we could present our research topics and results. Signe presented her poster “Quantitative mineralogical analysis of clay-containing materials using ATR-FT-IR-PLS method”, where an easy and quick quantitative method for determining the mineralogical composition of clays in different sizes and amounts of cultural heritage (i.e. pottery, sculptures, construction materials, etc.) samples using ATR-FT-IR spectroscopy with partial least squares (PLS) analysis is presented. Anu presented her poster „ Analysis of Early Modern Age medicine found in a shipwreck from the Baltic Sea“. In this study, ATR-FT-IR, pyGC-MS, and MALDI-FT-ICR-MS techniques were combined to determine the chemical composition of materials (like pine tar, essential oil, etc.) in the pharmacy jar found on a 16th-century shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. Shidong presented his poster “Classification of Archaeological Adhesives from Eastern Europe and Urals by ATR-FT-IR Spectroscopy and Chemometric Analysis”. This study showed that ATR-FT-IR-DA classification is a rapid and reliable pre-scanning method for analyzing archaeological adhesives (e.g. birch bark tar), which is especially suitable for small samples.
Overall, the inArt2022 conference gave our cultural heritage and archaeology objects researchers the possibility to introduce their scientific work results, hear presentations of investigation of different materials, obtain valuable tips for further research and have interesting discussions with other scientists.
Every year students vote for their favorite teachers in all of the institutes at the University of Tartu.
We are pleased to announce that this year Dr. Koit Herodes was selected as the best teacher from the Institute of Chemistry!
Koit is an Associate Professor in our Chair of Analytical Chemistry. He is an expert in several analytical techniques, including chromatography and mass spectrometry. His current courses include Analytical Chemistry, Practical Chemical Analysis, Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, Master Seminar in Measurement Science, and LC-MS Methods Validation. He teaches students of the Estonian chemistry and high school teacher curricula but also the students of the international EACH and AMS programs. Since 2001 he has supervised numerous BSc, MSc, and PhD students.
