PhD student Karla Vargas, from the Multidisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Environmental Sciences (PMPCA) in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is doing a research stay at the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability belonging to the Polytechnic University of Catalonia under the supervision of Dr. Jordi Morató.
The doctoral thesis is directed by Dr. Luis Armando Bernal Jácome and its main objective is to identify physicochemical, ecological and health properties of raw materials in commercial detergents (DC) that contain ethoxylated nonylphenol as surfactant and of a new proposed detergent, as well as develop a methodology for the monitoring of nonylphenol (degraded in DC) in bodies of water or in stored products.
The purpose of the research stay is to characterize the detergents developed in order to carry out a comparative analysis that complements the results already obtained. Likewise, cell viability will be determined using a molecular detection system called viability PCR (vqPCR).
On the other hand, a water sample will be carried out in different countries of the European Union to determine the presence of nonylphenol and compare the concentrations with those obtained from samples taken from Mexico. This analysis will be carried out with an analytical method by solid phase microextraction and gas-mass chromatography.
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