Romania

University Al. I. Cuza’ (UAIC) of Iasi, Romania

Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi is the oldest University in Romania. Through the achievements carried out on the educational and scientific domains, the University has gained recognition both on a national and on an international level. Since 2014 a new integrated research centre on environmental science has been developed at UAIC, CERNESIM. For UAIC, CERNESIM will increase the efficiency and the quality of R&D activities and develop a priority area/domain. CERNESIM will contribute to the growth of the number of researchers in the area; on the long-term, the development of the R&D will facilitate the creation/maintenance of new jobs in the view of specialization of the young graduates through studies of master, doctorates and post doctorate. CERNESIM will also permit the Romanian researchers participation in international research programs and in national and international networks. For the beneficiaries, the new infrastructure shall permit the development of R&D programs in partnerships with universities (like OzOA), and through the transfer of researches and scientific knowledge’s.

Environmental simulation chamber (ESC-Q-UAIC) from UAIC-CERNESIM

The UAIC environmental simulation chamber (ESC-Q-UAIC) is part of the laboratory that has been created for the investigation of physical and chemical processes from atmosphere. This infrastructure settled up in the ”Al.I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania, has been developed through the CERNESIM project, coordinated by Dr. R.I. Olariu. It should be noted that until now no such facility exists in any other Romanian research centers or University.

The reactor consists of three quartz tubes connected by flanges with a total length of 4.2 m, has an inner diameter of 0.48 m and is closed at both ends by stainless steel flanges. The ESC-Q-UAIC has a volume of approximately 760 L. The reactor can be evacuated to a pressure of about 10^-3 mbar by a pump system. To ensure homogeneous mixing of the reactants, two fans with Teflon blades are mounted inside the reactor. For the photolysis aging, black-light lamps (with λmax = 365 nm) mimicking solar radiation and evenly spaced around the reaction vessel, will be employed. The chamber is equipped with a White type multiple-reflection mirror system with a base length of (4.1 ± 0.1) m for sensitive in situ long path absorption monitoring of reactants and products in the IR spectral range. The White system operate at 30 traverses, giving a total optical path length of (492 ± 0.2) m. The IR spectra are recorded with a spectral resolution of 0.1cm^-1 using a Bruker-Vertex 80v FTIR spectrometer, equipped with an MCT detector. Both end flanges contain inlet systems for reactants and bath gases, particle sampling, pressure and temperature measurements.

In addition to conventional analytical instrumentation (TD-GC-FID-MS, HPLC, O₃ and NOx analyzers), the chamber is equipped with state-of-the-art measurement techniques as: HR-ToF-AMS, total C and N analyzers, comprehensive GC×GC-MS system, SUNSET for OC/EC measurements and SMPS for measuring aerosol size distribution, number concentration, and volume concentration. Product formation and reactant decay will be monitored by using long path absorption FTIR spectrometer and GC-FID-MS detection. For offline chemical analysis of the particles, Teflon filters are used at the point when aerosol volume reaches its maximum value. Using the extraction protocols of Teflon filters in HPLC-grade methanol, the resultant filter extracts will be analyzed by the HPLC/ESI-MS. Description of the technical characteristics of the ESC-Q-UAIC can be found as well on the http://erris.gov.ro/cernesim.uaic.ro.