1. Jennifer Field Lab

 

Welcome to the Jennifer Field Laboratory!

The Field Laboratory focuses on creating and applying analytical methodology for the purpose of quantifying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) occurrence, fate, and transport in environmental and engineered systems. The principal instruments used in the Field Laboratory are liquid- and gas chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry. Measurements of target, suspect, and nontarget PFAS are being integrated with total fluorine measurements by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in collaboration with Dr. Patrick Reardon (OSU). We work closely with the laboratory of Dr. Gerrad Jones at OSU who uses advanced statistical methods to maximize the information obtained by LC- and GC-HRMS and NMR.  Projects focus on PFAS in municipal and industrial wastewaters, landfill leachates, and aqueous film forming foam (AFFF)-impacted waters, including surface water and groundwater, for the purpose of source apportionment (e.g., forensics). Advanced analytical methods are used to characterize PFAS associated with materials before and after thermal transformation including textiles, papers, paints, and other materials including fluoropolymers and plastics.  The distribution of PFAS in environmental media near AFFF- impacted sites includes currently focuses on the occurrence PFAS in the surface micro layer of natural water bodies and in association with non- aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) in the subsurface.  Biomimetic chromatography, which relies on chromatographic stationary phases that mimic biological tissue components (e.g., proteins and phospholipids, is being used to derive structure activity relations for the purpose of predicting PFAS uptake by biota. 

Ongoing Research