M.Sc. Fabian Hagen

Students of chemical engineering/process engineering (or equivalent) interested in experimental work and with a preference for innovative diagnostic tools. Knowledge of aerosol or particle technology, physical chemistry, and/or laser spectroscopy may help you get started but is not required.

Motivation:

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a laser diagnostic method for determining the elemental composition of a sample ionized in plasma. Since the plasma is induced by a nanosecond laser pulse, non-intrusive and time-resolved detection of the target quantity becomes possible. In turn, this is essential for applications in reactive flows. As the plasma decays, each of the ionized elements emits a characteristic fingerprint in light spectrum, which can be recorded by a spectrometer. While precise diagnostics of elemental gas phase composition using LIBS is state of the art, elemental analysis of gas-borne aerosol particles is a challenge that has not yet been satisfactorily solved.

Task:

The thesis deals with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) of gas-borne particles. The first task is to familiarize with the LIBS setup designed at the institute/ group and to quantitatively characterize gas phase compositions. Subsequently, the system is to be adapted in such a way that the detection of the elemental composition of gas-borne particles on the (sub-)micrometer scale becomes possible. The aerosols to be analyzed are of various nature, size and composition and can be selected by the student - depending on her/his preferences and interests.

Responsible:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dimosthenis Trimis