Environmental Forensics
Explore environmental forensics in this 34-minute conference talk from the APS March Meeting 2013. Delve into the Kavli Foundation Special Session on Forefront Physics for Real World Problems, focusing on energy, climate, and the environment. Learn about "petroleomics" and the challenges of analyzing oil molecules. Discover how high-resolution mass spectrometry, particularly Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR), is used to establish molecular fingerprints of released oil. Understand the theoretical principles behind mass resolving power, detection methods, and space charge effects in FT-ICR. Examine the importance of cyclotron radius distribution and excitation waveform correction in analysis. Gain insights into the compositional diversity of oil and the complexity of natural organic compounds. Conclude with an introduction to the cutting-edge 21 Tesla FT-ICR magnet and its applications in environmental forensics.