Dr. Pawliszyn’s Research Group

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
What the facility does

The group develops analytical chemistry sample preparation and methods.

Areas of expertise

The primary focus of Professor Pawliszyn's research program is the design of highly automated and integrated instrumentation for the isolation of analytes from complex matrices and the subsequent separation, identification and determination of these species. An important objective is the development and application of state-of-the-art, integrated and automated analytical methods and instrumentation, for on-site analysis and monitoring.

Many of the research projects target elimination of organic solvents from the sample preparation step to facilitate on-site monitoring and analysis. Several alternative techniques to solvent extraction are investigated including use of coated fibres, packed needles, membranes and supercritical fluids. Also of importance are the efforts in whole column imaging detection for protein and peptide separations in isoelectric focusing. The technology provides for dynamic imaging of the focusing process and better resolution by eliminating the need to mobilize the focused bands prior to detection.

Research services

Analytical chemistry

Sectors of application
  • Agriculture, animal science and food
  • Clean technology
  • Environmental technologies and related services
  • Healthcare and social services
  • Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
Specialized lab Equipment Function
Liquid Chromatography Thermo Exactive LC-MS  
  Thermo TSQ Vantage LC-MS  
  Applied Biosystems API 400 LC-MS/MS  
  Applied Biosystems API 300 LC-MS/MS  
  Varian 500-MS LC-MS  
  Agilent-HP series 1100 HPLC-UV  
  Waters 600E HPLC-DA  
Gas Chromatography Agilent 7890-5975C GC-MS  
  Agilent 6890A-5973N GC-MS  
  Agilent 6890-5973 GC-MS  
  Agilent 6890A GC/LECO Pegasus GC-TOF-MS  
  Agilent 5890 Series II GC-FID  
  Thermo Trace GC Ultra GC-FID, NPD  
  Varian 4000 GC-MS  
  Varian CP-3800 GC-FID, TSD, ECD  
  Young-Lin-Acme 6000 Series GC/FID  
  Torion Tridion-9 portable GC-MS Portable GC for in-field analysis
Other instrumentation Capillary Electrophoresis Beckman P/ACETM MDQ  
  Capillary Electrophoresis Convergent Bioscience iCE 280  
  Ion Mobility Spectrometry Smiths SABRE 2000 portable IMS  
  Particle generator/sizer TSI SPMS 3936  
  PAS Concept 96-blade autosampler  
  Thermal desorption Torion High volume desorber  
  • Supelco
  • Maxxam Analytics
  • Gerstel
  • PAS Technologies
  • Ministry of the Environment Ontario
  • Unilever
  • World Anti-Doping Agency
  • Toronto General Hospital