Current PhD Theses

Jennifer Braun takes a closer look at the sniffer dog as a "detector" for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Thanks to their highly sensitive olfactory system, sniffer dogs have the special ability to sniff out drugs, explosives, people or animals on the basis of their scent. But how sensitive is the dog and how reliable is its detection? To get to the bottom of this, doctoral student Jennifer Braun is working on methods for the quality-assured quantification of VOCs, which primarily involve instrumental analysis but also the sniffer dog. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P. Kaul

Cryptography (encryption technology) is used everywhere. In online banking as well as when opening the car by remote control. But, a new type of computer, the quantum computer, threatens the current generation of encryption systems. In order to remain on the safe side, new cryptographic procedures must be devised, developed and tested. This research field is called post-quantum cryptography. Ruben Gonzalez is researching how post-quantum cryptography can work on the very smallest devices, the constraint embedded devices (e.g. fine dust sensors, credit cards). Supervision: Prof. Dr. K. Jonas

N-nitrosamines are partly highly volatile compounds that can be formed in many different industrial processes and are classified as carcinogenic. Therefore, it is of acute interest that reliable, sensitive and mobile systems for the detection and quantification of N-nitrosamines are developed. Jana Hinz is working on the development of a GC-FAIMS system, a measuring device for the rapid analysis of N-nitrosamines used in various branches of industry. Compared to common methods, GC-FAIMS offers the advantage of being fast, on-site applicable and cost-efficient. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. M. Wirtz

Raw meat quickly shows bacterial infestation. If the contaminated meat is consumed, it can be hazardous to health if it exceeds a certain quantity. Therefore D. Klein wants to make contaminations (e.g. bacteria) on complex substrates (e.g. meat) visible. To do so, he is linking spectroscopic data from IR and Raman spectroscopy from the same measurement regions to show where contaminations can be found. By linking the two methods, the information content of the data set should increase and at the same time the error rate in contamination detection should decrease. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P. Kaul

In recent years, 3D cameras based on the time-of-flight method - also driven by their use in smartphones - have increasingly found their way into our everyday lives. The possible applications of this technology are immense - automatic environment detection in the automotive sector, safety and automation functions in robotics, tasks of automatic area monitoring, biometric problems or the contactless control of technical devices. The aim of M. Rohde's research is to improve these cameras for the use in biometric or outdoor applications. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Robert Lange

Due to its unique properties, ultrapure water is used as a solvent or starting product for pharmaceuticals as well as for cleaning surfaces during manufacture of high-precision components in semiconductor production. Monitoring the quality of the water is of utmost importance here. S. Schäfer is developing a universal measuring device for monitoring ultrapure water quality, combining oxidation by ozonation in combination with UV radiation. This leads to an extended oxidation process and a significant increase in oxidation power compared to conventional systems. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P. Kaul

Potato cancer, caused by the potato fungus Synchytrium endobioticum (Schilb.) Perc. is one of the most important pests of potatoes (quarantine status in the EU). Therefore, early detection and containment is extremely important. S. Vermeeren analyses the volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles of potato plants, potatoes and residual soil using thermodesorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS), with the aim of being able to distinguish between healthy and infected states. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P. Kaul