Comparing levoglucosan and mannosan ratios in sediments and corresponding aerosols from recent Australian fires.

The monosaccharide anhydrides levoglucosan, mannosan, and galactosan are known as 'fire sugars' as they are powerful proxies used to trace fire events. Despite their increasing use, their application is not completely understood, especially in the context of tracing past fire events using sediment samples. There are many uncertainties about fire sugar formation, partitioning, transport, complexation, and stability along all stages of the source-to-sink pathway.

Simultaneous separation and detection of monochloramine, nitrite, and nitrate by step-gradient mixed-mode ion chromatography: Translation from benchtop to portable ion chromatograph.

Background: Nitrite (NO) and nitrate (NO) can be produced in the distribution systems of chloraminated drinking water due to the nitrification of ammonia. The most applied inorganic chloramine for this purpose, namely monochloramine (NHCl), is also released into aquatic environments from water treatment plants' effluent and within industrial waste streams. Within the treatment process, the continuous monitoring of disinfectant levels is necessary to limit the harmful disinfectant by-product (DBP) formation.

Portable IC system enabled with dual LED-based absorbance detectors and 3D-printed post-column heated micro-reactor for the simultaneous determination of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate.

Background: The on-site and simultaneous determination of anionic nitrite (NO) and nitrate (NO), and cationic ammonium (NH), in industrial and natural waters, presents a significant analytical challenge. Toward this end, herein a 3D-printed micro-reactor with an integrated heater chip was designed and optimised for the post-column colorimetric detection of NH using a modified Berthelot reaction. The system was integrated within a portable and field deployable ion chromatograph (Aquamonitrix) designed to separate and detect NO and NO, but here enabled with dual LED-based absorbance detectors, with the aim to provide the first system capable of simultaneous determination of both anions and NH in industrial and natural waters.

Application of a portable ion chromatograph for real-time field analysis of nitrite and nitrate in soils and soil pore waters.

Real-time monitoring of nitrite and nitrate is crucial for maintaining soil health and promoting plant growth. In this study, a portable ion-chromatograph (IC, Aquamonitrix) analyser, coupled with a field-applicable ultrasonic-assisted extraction method, was utilised for in-field determination of nitrate and nitrite in soils. This is the first application of this type of analyser to soil nutrients.

Boron quantification using ion chromatography tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Application to retention analysis in boron-treated wood.

Boron compounds play a crucial role in various industries, and accurate quantification of boron is essential for quality control and environmental monitoring. This study presents a simple, rapid, and reliable method for determining boron in aqueous solutions using suppressed ion chromatography coupled to electrospray ionisation-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (IC-ESI-QqQ-MS). Boric acid (B(OH)) was retained as the tetrahydroxyborate ion (B(OH)) on a CarboPac PA300-4 μm anion-exchange column using isocratic elution with 40 mM KOH.