Vendula Smolikova

PROJECT TITLE:

Development and application of Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films technique (DGT) for evaluation of selected trace elements contamination in the aquatic environment.

RESEARCH SUMMARY:

The overall aim of my PhD is to develop new designs of the Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT) technique for evaluation of selected trace elements (arsenic and uranium) in the aquatic environment.  The first part of my PhD at MENDELU was focused on the development of the DGT for arsenic. We aimed to develop a new resin gel whose production would be simpler and less time consuming and which would provide more robust sorption capabilities and higher sorption capacity than other resin gels commonly used for arsenic DGT measurement. Commercially available resin Lewatit FO 36 was chosen for this purpose and a new DGT technique was optimized and validated by in-situ applications in several localities in the Czech Republic (Záskalská water reservoir, mineral springs Hronovka and Regnerka), Vietnam (Nhue-Day river basin), and others. The second part of my research connected with the VUB is focused on the development and evaluation of DGT technique for uranium monitoring. In cooperation with Orano Group, we are evaluating whether DGTs can be used as a long-term monitoring tool for uranium in groundwater and river water of the Orano Tricastin industrial platform area (Drôme and Vaucluse Departments, France). Extensive laboratory testing has been performed in order to find the most effective DGT design which would reliably provide the time-integrated averaged U concentration in water of the studied area and therefore could be implemented in Orano laboratories as a routine technique for the determination of uranium. Both goals of my PhD research were then linked by the successful use of Lewatit FO 36-DGTs for the simultaneous determination of arsenic and uranium in the Scheldt estuary and Belgian coastal zone.

EDUCATION:

Ms Mendel University in Brno, 2017

BA Mendel University in Brno, 2015

SUPERVISORS:

• Prof. Dr. Martine Leermakers (VUB)
• doc. Mgr. Pavlína Pelcová, Ph.D. (MENDELU)
• Ing. Andrea Ridošková, Ph.D. (MENDELU)