Analytical Fusion

I originally graduated in 2000 with a B.Eng in Electromechanical Engineering, and spent the first few years of my career hopping between the aerospace and pharmaceutical industries while juggling an M.Eng. After a number of years in the pharma and medical device sectors and a period working for myself, an opportunity arose to return to academia on a PhD scholarship. The catch? The field was new territory for me – analytical chemistry. The bonus? It was with the Irish Separation Science Cluster (ISSC), an internationally renowned separations group based at Dublin City University. 

Three years after joining the ISSC, I can look back at what has been a highly successful and fruitful experience, on many levels. The ISSC is a truly multi-disciplinary group, originally set up by Brett Paull, to work closely with industry in tackling analytical problems in the area of separation science. His vision was to create a separations group made up of chemists, engineers, physicists, and microbiologists to provide a platform through which new ideas could be shared and new challenges addressed by breaching traditional research boundaries. Indeed, the work being done with the ISSC is extremely diverse, from material science and research into new stationary phases, to instrumentation development and biotechnology applications. Clearly, a broad spectrum of projects such as this requires expertise from very different areas. And people with diverse perspectives are able to bring innovative solutions.

My own work has covered both high temperature liquid chromatography and the development of polymer monoliths, specifically in porous-layer, open-tubular formats. In the first case, I developed several prototype column ovens specifically for capillary and microbore scale – complementing a move by the industry towards faster, greener separations. Current column heaters are slow to heat and cool, so often cannot maintain pace with the separation when using gradients. By taking my knowledge of thermoelectric technology from a former life and applying it to chromatographic separation, we were able to achieve rapid heating and cooling rates (~400 °C/min as compared with 30 °C/min for the fastest column heaters) – perfect for fast separations. We now have a commercial prototype and are trying to make the technology more flexible. Watch this space. 

My second area of interest is in the development of monolithic porous layer open tubular (monoPLOT) columns, particularly for GC. This involves the in-situ fabrication of polymer layers inside fused silica capillaries. The process can be approached in a couple of ways, usually photo- or thermally-initiated polymerization; however, these methods can be quite complex with poor reproducibility. To make it easier (and crucially, more repeatable) we have developed some unique instrumentation to automate the process, and recently added in-process detection methods to further increase column-to-column reproducibility. Once again my engineering background is paying dividends. Successful patent applications were filed for both technologies and there has been considerable industry interest to date.

In 2012, I received the Royal Society of Chemistry Ronald Belcher Award for my work in high temperature capillary LC and capillary LC related instrumentation development. Hailing from a non-chemistry background, I feel highly privileged but also acknowledge that it would not have been possible without the guidance and advice of my more chemistry-savvy mentors (Brett Paull and Ekaterina Nesterenko) or my engineering background and experience. By becoming a researcher at the ISSC, I have been able to widen my own academic reach and find a creative niche: “analytical engineering”. I am pleased to recognize, on a daily basis, the innovation and rewards that a multi-disciplinary approach can generate.