Understanding the degradation of organic xenobiotics requires more than monitoring the disappearance of the parent compound. The identification and structural characterization of transformation products are essential for elucidating degradation pathways and assessing their environmental relevance.
In this seminar, I will present how the coupling of electrochemistry with mass spectrometry can be used as a powerful approach to investigate the transformation mechanisms of organic xenobiotics. Electrochemistry provides a controlled platform for generating oxidative or reductive transformations, while high-resolution mass spectrometry enables the rapid detection, characterization and structural elucidation of the resulting transformation products. The combination can therefore provide valuable mechanistic insights into complex degradation pathways.
Examples from my research will include electrochemical degradation studies of pesticides and other environmental contaminants, with work conducted at CEISAM, University of Nantes, and BAM – Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin. I will also discuss the integration of LCMS/MS, high-resolution MS and computational approaches to move from the detection of transformation products towards mechanistic understanding.