IMDEA Agua | Pollutants tour: transport, analysis and detection in the IMDEA Water laboratories

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The proposed Tour will show since the transport of pollutants through water/soil until their extraction and detection in water, soil and plants samples. The Laboratory Technicians will show the way that contaminants move through the soil from a small urban center to a natural ecosystem with surface water and crop fields. A contamination with a dye will be simulated, which could well represent a pesticide, a drug, gasoline or any other compound harmful to the environment, and they will explain the way to proceed in these cases to analyze this type of contaminated water, soil or plant samples. In order to illustrate the detection of these contaminants in surface water, the thin layer chromatography technique will be applied, to be carried out by the participants. Markers of different colors will be used, which will simulate the contaminants, and with the use of suitable solvents, it will be shown how the separation process of the different components is carried out to be later identified, using ultraviolet light. The technicians will also show how to know if a plant is contaminated through the techniques used in the laboratory.