Unravelling the structures of molecules contained within complex mixtures

混合物无处不在，从食品和饮料，制造业到我们的自然环境。许多含有未知分子或太复杂，以至于标准色谱方法无法分离其中包含的单个分子。通常，只有少数化合物的鉴定是可能的，而大量未知的化合物阻碍了结构-功能关系的探索。本项目旨在开发结合色谱分离和高端分析技术的方法，利用NMR波谱、HPLC-FT-ICR-MS和GC-GC-TOF-MS来阐明未知化合物的结构。该项目将探索现有方法的应用，并开发使用从泥炭有机物质到苏格兰威士忌等一系列混合物的新方法。

Mixtures are found everywhere from food and drink, manufacturing to our natural environment. Many contain unknown molecules or are so complex that standard chromatographic methods fail to separate individual molecules contained within them. Typically, identification of only a handful of compounds is possible and a large number of unknown compounds prevents structure-function relationships to be explored. This project aims to develop approaches to combine chromatographic separation ad high-end analytical techniques to elucidate structure of unknown compounds using NMR spectroscopy, HPLC-FT-ICR-MS and GC-GC-TOF-MS. The project will explore application of existing methods and develop new methodologies using a range of mixtures from peat organic matter to Scotch whisky.