I am working in Prof. Ari Väisänen's group as a laboratory engineer of analytical chemistry and circular economy. I am the laboratory executive in our hydrometallurgy laboratory (bench scale, mini-pilot equipment) and a technical person in other analytical chemistry and circular economy laboratories, also partaking in research and teaching duties.
My current research is focused on analytical chemistry and circular economy with most relevant subtopic being recovery of valuable materials from industrial side streams and waste materials using hydrometallurgical methods. I work as an executive in our Circular Economy Center of Expertise (CECE) hydrometallurgy laboratory (mini pilot scale of 1 kg / 10 L), where it is possible to study chemical recovery processes such as liquid-liquid extraction, solid-liquid separation, electrolysis and ion exchange. My instrumental expertise and responsibilities comprise, in this research environment, elemental determination using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), flame photometry, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and, in the near future, chromatographic applications. Previous research in my doctoral sudies were focused on structural and synthetic chemistry, comprising synthesis and characterization of new molecules and materials. Characterization methods such as single crystal and powder X-ray diffractometry, NMR spectroscopy and thermogravimetry, but also supporting methods when needed, are in my toolbox from those times, too.
