Professor Spas Kolev
Professor
Email: s.kolev@unimelb.edu.au
Location: Room 212, Chemistry Building, Parkville Campus
Address: School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
Phone No: 8344-7931
Find an Expert page: http://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/researcher/person8383.html
Kolev Research group page: http://chemistry.unimelb.edu.au/staff/spas/research
Profile
Qualifications
- Five-year university degree in Chemistry, University of Sofia (Bulgaria), 1982
- PhD (Analytical Chemistry), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), 1988
Current Positions
- Professor, The University of Melbourne, 2012-
- Team Leader - Novel Chemistries: Analytical Methods and Probes, Victorian Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management (CAPIM), 2010-
Membership of Editorial Boards
- Member: Environmental Modeling and Assessment, Sensors, International Journal of Analytical Chemistry, Talanta, and Challenges
- Editor-in-chief: Membranes
Awards
- Ronald Belcher Memorial Award (Talanta, 1988)
- Lloyd Smythe Medal (Analytical Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 2009)
- Medal of the Japanese Association of Flow Injection Analysis, 2010
Research
Flow Analysis Techniques
The focus of this area is the development of novel flow analytical techniques (i.e. flow injection analysis, sequential injection analysis and bead injection analysis) for the on-line determination of analytes of environmental and industrial interest, such as heavy metals and metalloids (e.g. Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, As, Sb, Hg), cyanide, thiocyanate, ammonia and phenols. Most of these techniques involve on-line separation based on dialysis, gas-diffusion, pervaporation and extraction.
Membrane Separation
This work is directed towards the development and study of polymer inclusion membranes. These are an attractive alternative to solvent extraction because they drastically reduce or even eliminate the use of solvents, and they have been successfully applied to the extraction of both metallic and non-metallic species from their aqueous solutions. Mathematical modelling of membrane extraction and transfer processes is used for the determination of membranes parameters such as diffusion coefficients and extraction constants. Another important component of this research is the development of membrane systems for the clean-up of industrial wastewaters.
Environmental, Industrial and Clinical Sampling and Analysis
The environmental and industrial sampling work is concerned with the development of novel passive sampling approaches for monitoring natural waters and industrial and domestic wastewaters and is conducted in collaboration with other researchers from CAPIM. The clinical sampling and analysis is aimed at studying chemical species in saliva related to mouth cancer.
Phytoremediation and Phytomining
This work involves the study of metal hypreaccumulating plants and their applicability to the phytoextarction of noble and base metals (e.g. gold, nickel, mercury) with a view to the rehabilitation of landfills, biosolids and decommissioned tailings dams.
Publications
A list of publications produced since 2001 can be viewed at - Find an Expert