Erik Butter

- Environmental pollutants (small molecules) in biogeochemical systems

- evolving mass spectrometry with data science techniques

- interface between environmental analytics and environmental catalysis (remediation)

The evolution of environmentally non-degradable small molecule pollutants, such as Trifluoroacetate, brings new problems to regulation. Especially the very persistent and very mobile character of that substance leads to its steady increase in all compartments of our environment. Research from the last decades shows, that its role as terminal degradation product of industrial substances, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals and refridgerants complicates the understanding of its origins and mass balances.
At the same time, new analytical techniques like Orbitrap-HRMS offer the possibility of approaching isotopic compositions of diluted polar substances at a new scale. Analyzing the isotopic composition of a molecule can be a strong tool to understand its previous path through the environment.