Poster Award at the DAAS Doctoral Seminar 2026
Poster Award for Désirée Anna-Maria Schütz at the DAAS Doctoral Seminar in Münster
Désirée Anna-Maria Schütz from the Analytical Chemistry group won the poster prize at this year’s DAAS Doctoral Seminar in Münster for her poster titled “Surface Chemistry of Microplastics: A ToF-SIMS-Supported Feasibility Study on Aged and Pristine Particles," at this year's DAAS Doctoral Seminar in Münster.
The study focused on the question of how aging processes affect the surface chemistry of microplastic particles and how these changes can be systematically recorded. To this end, microplastic particles were synthesized in the laboratory and artificially aged under controlled conditions using UV-C radiation to simulate different stages of aging.
High-resolution time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used for a detailed analysis of the resulting changes in the particle surfaces. This method enables precise characterization of the chemical composition and structural changes directly at the particle surface at the micrometer scale.
The results provide important insights into the surface chemical changes in microplastics resulting from aging processes.
