Mobile Lab Design is Underway!

Design of an atmospheric mobile laboratory for the Ault and Pratt Labs has begun! Some instruments that are planned for deployment in the mobile lab are the following:

Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ATOFMS)

Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS)

Ambient Ion Monitor (AIM-IC)
 Aerosol Sizing Instrumentation (SMPS and APS)

Gas Phase Instrumentation (NOx and O3)

The goal is that the mobile lab, will be finished by January to be used for a winter study in collaboration with the Pratt Lab. It will come equipped with an A/C unit to keep the instruments from becoming to hot, a ramp to allow for easier loading and unloading of instruments and a roof platform to help with installment of the sampling setup. Potential other additions such as cabinets may also be part of the design.

The development process is currently taking over part of the Ault Lab as we do our best to get a spatial visualization of the mobile lab, by using tape to mark the area of the trailer. 

Foam boards are cut out to represent the different instruments.

Dr, Ault discussing the layout of the mobile lab design.

Dr. Pratt checking on the progress of the mobile lab design

Large Wave Event Study on the West Coast of Michigan July 2015

On July 6 to 8, Nate May (third year grad student, Pratt Lab) and Isabel Colon-Bernal (first year grad student, Ault Lab) conducted a small Field Study on the West Coast of Michigan during a Large Wave Event to collect Lake Spray Aerosol samples and Lake water from Lake Michigan. 

The waves were up to 7 feet high on the South Beaches of the Great Lakes due to a stiff 15-25mph south wind.

We camped at the Van Buren State Park near South Haven, MI. We arrived on Monday, July 6th, at about 11pm. We setup the camp and a sample to run overnight at the campsite using the Microanalysis Particle Sampler (MPS) and the AeroTrak Handheld Airborne Particle Counter. The MPS is a 3 stage impactor; Stage 1 is >2um, Stage 2 is 700nm-2um, Stage 3 is <700nm. The AeroTrak will give us a size distribution of the particles present in the atmosphere during the sampling period. The next morning, July 7th, we ran a sample from 8am to around noon on the campsite.

Nate May (Pratt Lab) standing next to the instrumental setup

Then we took the instruments to the beach where we collected a sample from around 2pm to 5pm because the battery packs had died. Back at the campsite, we collected another sample over night and one in the morning on July 8th, from 9am to 1pm. Before coming back to U-M, we collected some lake water in a Nalgene 8L bottle.    

Lake Michigan Beach after the Large Wave Event

NCNHIR Workshop

Prof. Ault and Dr. Axson recently attended the NIEHS Centers for Nanotechnology Health Implications Research (NCNHIR) Workshop in Raleigh, NC. They presented work on AgNP gastrointestinal studies, including a talk and poster on the kinetics of AgNP in gastric fluid of varying pH and in the presence of pepsin, along with learning about the various other studies performed through NCNHIR. 

Though this was the final meeting the consortium, we are excited about the potential to continue  thie research with in our lab and though collaborations with others from the consortium to further our understating of AgNP impacts in the gastrointestinal tract. 

Gold rating for sustainability

Members of the Ault lab recently participated in sustainability training to learn more about sustainability principles for the laboratory, including how to reduce energy consumption and increase sustainable operations. The Ault lab was awarded a gold rating for sustainability through the University of Michigan Office of Campus Sustainability: http://www.ocs.umich.edu/pdf/AultLaboratory584.pdf

Congratulations Hongru!

Congratulations to Hongru Shen as she earned her Masters (M.S.) in Environmental Health Science. She signs and dates her non-alcoholic "champagne" cork area on the ceiling tile in celebration. 

Colorado Snow Study April 2015

In early April, Prof. Andrew Ault, Dr. Jessica Axson, and graduate student Hongru Shen from the Ault lab along with Dr. Jessie Creamean from NOAA, Boulder set out to Silverton Colorado for a short field study to collect snow and aerosol samples from a remote site in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado to examine dust deposition in the area. 

Google Map showing Silverton, CO and the Swamp Angel Sampling Site in the San Juan Mountains. 

April 2^nd: After arriving in Silverton the night before, the four of us set to out meet with Chris Landry and Jay Wlez from the Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies (CSAS; http://www.snowstudies.org) to trek out to the Swamp Angel Study Plot. To get to the site, we had to use snow shoes and carry in the instrument and supplies. The stunning location was surrounded by mountain ridges, including Red Mountain and Trico Peak.

Prof. Ault and Hongru Shen starting their trek to the sampling site for set up. 

Dr. Creamean, Jay Welz, and Chris Landry at the Swamp Angel Site

To collect aerosols, we used a 3 stage impactor with three different size cuts at <700 nm, 700 nm – 2.5 mm, and 2.5 mm<.  The impactor was run on battery power to avoid aerosol production and was kept safe from weather in an metal enclosure. 

Impactor at the sampling site.

For each night sampling, the instrument was strapped to the platform for stability (Show in picture are Prof. Ault, Dr. Axson and Hongru Shen). 

April 3^rd : To sample during the day and night, we changed samples every morning around 9:00-10:00 and again at 16:00-16:30.  Andy and Jessie head off to the airport, with Hongru and I remaining to collect 2 more days of sampling. We believe over Thursday night that we may have had a small dust event, evident by the loading on our top stage (2 um<) the following morning.

Sampling stage 1 (2.5 um<) after dust event. 

April 4^th: For the next two days of sampling, there was no visible loading on the top stage, but very small and still visible loading on the bottom two stages. Snow samples were collected all three days for offline analysis using IC and NTA.

April 5^th:  After packaging and shipping all of our equipment, Dr. Axson and Hongru Shen traveled back to Ann Arbor. We both enjoyed the beautiful mountain views from the flight from Durango to Denver.

Image of the Rocky Mountains on flight from Durango to Denver Colorado. 

MGU Symposium

Several members of the Ault Lab participated in the Michigan Geophysical Union (MGU) Symposium hosted by the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences Departments at the University of Michigan on Wednesday, April 1.

Undergraduate Sydney Niles and third year graduate student Amy Bondy presented their work on the characterization of aerosol particles collected during the SOAS Field Campaign.

First year rotation student Rachel Kirpes presented her work characterization of aerosol particles collected in Barrow, AK.

First year rotation student Garrett Welshofer presented his work on developing glassware to study heterogeneous reactions on aerosol particle surfaces.

Second year grad student Becky Craig presented her work on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and computer-controlled Raman microspectroscopy and their application to single particle aerosol analysis.

Congratulations to Becky Craig, Matt Gunsch (third year grad student, Pratt Lab), and Evan Schwartz (undergraduate, Pratt Lab) for winning 1st place, 2nd place, and the People's Choice Award at the symposium!

New method for sizing insoluble residues in precipitation

In December of 2014, the first Ault Group publication came out in Aerosol Science and Technology (abstract). First author Dr. Jessica Axson worked in collaboration with Dr. Jessie Creamean of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder on the paper entitled “An in situ method for sizing insoluble residues in precipitation and other aqueous samples” (Aerosol Science And Technology 49(1): 24-34). The work examines the size distribution and number concentration of insoluble residues with in snow collected at Yosemite National Park, CA and rainwater collected in Ann Arbor, MI using a new a novel technique for environmental analysis known as Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). This technique uses Brownian motion of particles in a liquid to determine their hydrodynamic size. This technique has great potential for studying the role that insoluble residues play in critical atmospheric processes, such as droplet/crystal nucleation, cloud processing, dry deposition, scavenging, and more.

The work was presented at the AGU Fall Meeting in December 2014 in San Francisco, CA.  Summer students from the first ever UM Detroit Research Internship Summer Experience (D-RISE) Partnership with Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Desmond Madu and Jackelyn Rodriguez, were able to participate in the project by assisting with rain sample collection and analysis.

Figure: a) NanoSight™ LM10, b) schematic of the laser illumination device (courtesy of Malvern, Inc.), c) Brownian motion (red lines) of individual nanoparticles (green spheres), and d) number size distributions.

Volunteering with FEMMES

On February 26th two graduate students Amy Bondy and Becky Craig, went to Howe Montessori School in Dearborn, MI with the FEMMES volunteer program. FEMMES (Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and Science) is dedicated to empowering  girls and young women as students and practitioners in STEM fields. Working specifically in diverse, underserved communities, FEMMES creates collaborative teaching and learning environments to promote leadership development, technical skills and self-confidence in women of all ages. Engaging, hands-on activities in all FEMMES programs allow girls to learn in a fun, supportive environment and explore their potential in the STEM fields. FEMMES seeks to build our participants’ curiosity about a variety of areas related to science, math, and engineering and encourage them to increase their participation in those fields.

At this after-school activity, Becky and Amy worked with groups of 4th-6th grade girls to explore various scientific concepts through hands-on activities. The girls explored electricity and circuits using conductive Play-Doh, batteries, light bulbs and buzzers (see image above), they investigated the properties of magnets and built an electromagnet using wire and a battery (see image below), they learned about catalytic reactions by creating "elephant's toothpaste" which involved the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water, and finally built edible DNA structures using marshmallows, toothpicks, and Twizzlers.

Congratulations to Hongru

Hongru Shen a second year masters of science student in the Ault Lab received a Rackham International Student Fellowship in the amount of $10,000 for 2014-2015. She was first nominated by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences this October and this week chosen as one of only twenty-five International Student Fellowship awards campus-wide for 2014-15 at the University of Michigan. She says, "I feel honored to be awarded as a master student since this fellowship not only supports part of my next semester’s tuition but it reflects the Rackham Graduate School’s very positive assessment of my future success." Congratulations Hongru!