Our group is part of the Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL), operating within the Department of Chemistry at the University of Crete, one of Greece's most prominent higher education institutions. The group's research focuses on the development of advanced analytical chemistry techniques for determining metal species, including metal containing nanoparticles, in environmental and biological matrices, and for investigating their interaction with biomolecules. To achieve this a wide range of separation techniques (HPLC, nanoHPLC, ion mobility spectrometry, affinity chromatography) coupled on-line with mass spectrometry (electrospray, sonic-spray ionization, nanoelectrospray, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ICP-MS) are being developed and used. Single particle ICP-MS is also being developed for nanoparticle counting and characterization. For further information about our research interests and activities, group members, publications and presentations, position openings, as well as other relevant topics please select the appropriate link within this website. Note that we do our best to update it on a regular basis. The aim is to continously inform about our activities. Thanks for visiting and please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance or if you have any comments that can help us progress our research or if you are interested in collaborating.
Spiros A. Pergantis
Professor of Analytical Chemistry
Our paper on improving the sensitivity of Sonic Spray Ionization MS by using the triboluminescent additive 3-nitrobenzonitrile (3-NBN) has just been published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. Congratulations to Katerina Kanaki for her hard work! (18 Oct. 2014)
Our two Erasmus MSc students Katrin Böhm and Annika Räsch have just completed their 5 month stay with our group. We thank them for their excellent work and wish them the best in the continuation of their studies and careers! (01 Aug. 2014)
Our group's collaborative work with K. Francesconi and D. Kuehnelt from the Univ. of Graz on "Concurrent quantitative HPLC-mass spectrometry profiling of small selenium species in human serum and urine after ingestion of selenium supplements" has just been published in J. of Trace Elem. in Med. and Biol.. Many congratulations to Alexandra Tsirigotaki for her excellent work!
Aqua-Nano Project: Our group is part of the Aqua-Nano project investigating the effects of silver nanoparticles on natural plankton communities on the basis of independent mesocosm experiments and a series of laboratory experiments performed at HCMR facilities. We will be conducting the single particle ICP-MS analysis. (01 July 14)
Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellowships: We are seeking junior or experienced post-docs with an excellent track record in Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry or Bioanalytical Chemistry, that are eligible to apply for Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowships, in order to support them throughout their application to the EU. Our group has so far hosted 5 Marie Curie postdoctoral fellows and is willing to offer its expertise for preparing a competitive research proposal in a topic related to our research interests. Interested researchers should send a full curriculum vitae and a description of the project (maximum two pages) to spergantis@chemistry.uoc.gr by July 18, 2014.
Congratulations to Prof. Maria Kanakidou for being elected Head of our Department. (17- June 14).
Spiros Pergantis attended the 7th Nordic Plasma Spectrochemistry conference in Loen, Norway. He presented an invited talk on "Pneumatic Nebulizer: a versatile analytical tool for integrating atomic and molecular mass spectrometry for the analysis of elemental species, metalloproteins and engineered nanoparticles". This great scientific meeting, combined spectacular scenary with meeting many friends from all over the world. (1-4 June 14).
We welcome Dr. Claudio Toncelli to our group. He will be developing novel analytical methodologies for nanoparticle detection in environmental matrices, as part of a collaboartion with Dr M. Tsapakis from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (19-03-14).
MSc and Undergraduate projects now available with our group (01-02-14).
Our new Eksigent nanoLC has been installed and is being used with the NexION 300XX ICP- MS for nano flow injection and nanoLC (20-12-13).
Our new NexION 300XX ICP- MS has been installed and is in full operation (15-07-13).