Wofford Professor Grant to Study Impacts of Urbanization on Health of Streams

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Grace Schwartz, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry at Wofford College, recently received a grant award worth approximately $40,000 from South Carolina’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The funding was used to purchase a handheld X-ray fluorescence analyzer.

This new piece of technology will help analyze samples collected in Schwartz’s environmental chemistry research.

“We’re interested in how urbanization impacts the health of streams in Spartanburg,” Schwartz said.

“Recently, our focus has been how urbanization affects lead and mercury in Spartanburg’s streams. Now, we can look even more broadly at heavy metals in the stream sediment, because with the XRF, we don’t have to limit ourselves anymore.”

Prior to acquiring the XRF, Schwartz and colleagues put their dried and sieved samples through an eight-hour acid digestion, which involves harsh chemicals and heated acids. Once that process ended, the samples would need to be taken to another college with the capability of analyzing it.

“During the summer, we have the time to transport it, but if you’re trying to do research during the semester, it’s impossible,” Schwartz says. “This will make it way easier. It only takes a minute or two to get the reading, and it’s pretty accurate.”

The XRF projects an X-ray at the sample, and the energy from the X-ray hits an inner electron and ejects it from the atom. An outer electron will then drop into the inner electron’s spot, releasing fluorescent energy in the process. The amount of fluorescent energy is unique to each chemical element.

Schwartz says the XRF will be used in chemistry courses during the academic year, and it will also help her and other Wofford researchers submit more competitive grant applications.

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