Pollution
Terrestrial Biodiversity
Toxic Pollutants & Hazardous Substances
Agriculture, Crops & Soil Health
Nature-based Solutions
Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Poland
2013.05.31
ISPETI: Implementation of solid-phase extraction (SPE) for determination of low concentrations of Tl(III) in plant tissues
For this, Dr. Ospina-Alvarez turned to the plant Sinapis alba, a member of the mustard family known to accumulate high levels of thallium. Since the highly toxic thallium-III is present in only trace amounts, she is developing a new method to extract it directly from the complex material of plant leaves. This technique should yield more concentrated samples of this kind of thallium, leading to more accurate measurements. This could mean better detection of thallium and other trace contaminants, and more accurate assessments of risk—for the environment and for people consuming plants grown in contaminated soil. Her work could even contribute to a solution: a clearer understanding of the way these plants accumulate thallium could let them be used in clean-up efforts to draw the poison from the soil, leaving the Earth cleaner than they found it.
Plants & Poisons: Assessing Contamination in Our Environment
In her own words...
Thallium occurs in the environment in two oxidation states, as Tl(I) and Tl(III), but Tl(III) is a thousand times more toxic than Tl(I). As thallium toxicity depends on the redox state of the metal is essential to determine both forms in the environment.
Tl(III) is naturally present at very low concentrations, therefore the element has to be pre-concentrate before its determination. Solid-liquid extraction (SLE) is a method widely used for evaluation of thallium bioavailability from soil as well as for extraction of thallium from plant and soil samples. This project aims to evaluate the application of a similar approach, known as solid-phase extraction (SPE), for separation of Tl(III) from samples with complex matrices.
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Natalia
OSPINA-ALVAREZ
Institution
University of Warsaw
Country
Poland
Nationality
Colombian
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