New Insights from Single-Particle Microplastic and TiO2 Analysis

At the 2026 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, which took place in Tucson, Arizona, from January 11–17, David Clases, an associate professor at the University of Graz in Vienna, Austria, delivered a talk titled, “Honey, I Shrunk the Plastics – Tracking Down Pollutants at the Microscale” (1). Clases was recognized at the conference for being both the JAAS Prize and the Nu Emerging Pioneer Award winner.

Clases’s background is in atomic spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. His academic career was mostly confined to the University of Münster in Germany. Under Professor Uwe Karst, Clases earned his B.Sc. in chemistry in 2012, his M.Sc. in chemistry in 2014, and his PhD in chemistry in 2017 (2).

After completing his PhD studies, Clases relocated to Australia, joining Professor Philip Doble’s group at the University of Technology Sydney. It was there that he began his teaching career, serving as a lecturer in chemistry. Clases returned to Europe in 2021 to join the faculty of the University of Graz in Austria, accepting a tenue-track position and founding the NanoMicroLab, which he runs to this day (2). Now an associate professor of chemistry, a position he obtained in 2024, Clases now leads a team of eight researchers in the NanoMicroLab (2).

Part I of our conversation with Clasas covered the trapping mechanism of the OF2i and how it improves downstream Raman and ICP-TOFMS measurements (3). Clases also discussed the multimodal approach his team used to improve microplastic analysis (3). Part II of our conversation focused on his proof-of-concept analysis of microplastic and TiO₂ nanoparticles, and the new insights that emerged from simultaneously accessing size, molecular identity, and elemental composition at the single-particle level.

This video clip is the second part of our conversation with Clases as part of our coverage of the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry. To stay up to date on our coverage of the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, click here.

References

1. IASA, Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry. IASA. Available at: https://iasa.world/winter-plasma-conference (accessed 2026-01-28).
2. Royal Society of Chemistry, David Clases. RSC.org. Available at: https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/david-clases (accessed 2026-01-28).
3. Wetzel, W. How Trimodal OF2i–Raman–ICP-TOFMS Is Changing Microplastic Analysis. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/how-trimodal-of2i-raman-icp-tofms-is-changing-microplastic-analysis (accessed 2026-01-29).