Antonella Guzzonato

Antonella Guzzonato

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Contact details

Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Title of PhD: Evaluating the Utility of Instrumental Tools for Screening for the Presence of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs)

Supervisor: Professor Stuart Harrad

Antonella Guzzonato is undertaking doctoral research around solid sampling techniques for polymers analysis. The research aim is to test the hypothesis that screening tools such as portable XRF analysers and LA-ICP-MS provide a satisfactory surrogate metric of the BFR content of a range of goods and materials. She will also compare these results with more “traditional” techniques used for these analytes (GC-MS, LC-MS).

Qualifications

BSc in Chemistry (Italy, 2011)

Msc in Chemistry and advanced chemical methodology (Italy, 2013)

Biography

Antonella earned a BSc in Chemistry and a MSc in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Camerino, Italy 2013. Her BSc project was about the bio-monitoring of deer and wild boars as a measure of heavy metals pollution. Her MSc project focused on the correlation between Organochlorinated compounds pollution and abnormal Fe and Mn concentrations in water. After a traineeship at ARPAM (Regional Agency for The Environmental Protection), Antonella won a Marie Curie Scholarship founded by the European Commission for the ELUTE Project in the Division of Environmental Health & Risk Management, University of Birmingham.

Research

Novel solid sampling analytical techniques for bulk and compound specific determination of BFRs in plastics.

Other activities

Antonella Guzzonato actively works within Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen where she is seconded for her research.

She has also established a scientific collaboration with the Institute for Testing and Certification in Zlin, Czech Republic.

Publications

2015

  • POPs Network Birmingham 2015 – Oral presentation
  • European Winter Plasma Conference Muenster 2015- Oral presentation
  • BFR Beijing 2015 - Poster