Dr. Valentin Göldner

Junior Group Leader at the Devision of Environmental Geosciences

☎ +43 1 4277 53392
✉ valentin.goeldner(at)univie.ac.at

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Our research focuses on the analysis of organic environmental pollutants and their transformation products. Using state-of-the-art analytical instruments, we aim to identify and study novel chemical entities in environmental samples, contributing to a better understanding of their behavior and potential impacts.

Research Topics

Chemical simulation of environmental transformation processes

Environmental pollutants often undergo transformations in nature, which can lead to the formation of new compounds with unknown properties. Our research simulates these processes to better understand their environmental relevance. By using purely instrumental reaction approaches combined with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, these transformations are replicated and studied in a controlled setting. This simulation supports the screening of novel contaminants by generating analytical reference data. In particular, our work focuses on simulating enzymatic redox reactions using electrochemical methods, as well as hydrolytic and photolytic transformations. Additionally, scaled-up chemical synthesis based on these simulation approaches provides access to reference materials. These materials are essential for accurately identifying and quantifying transformation products in environmental samples.

Environmental suspect screening and non-target analysis

Environmental samples are complex mixtures, containing thousands of natural and synthetic chemicals. Using advanced analytical techniques, we identify contaminants of concern and study their behavior. Liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry captures the diverse chemical space of these samples, but distinguishing relevant contaminants from background noise remains challenging. To address this, we employ two approaches: suspect screening and non-target analysis. Suspect screening analysis compares acquired data to a list of expected compounds (i.e., suspects) to determine their presence in a sample. Non-target analysis, on the other hand, aims to detect unexpected compounds, for example, by comparing groups of samples or using feature-based molecular networking. Our research focuses on developing and refining tools to annotate and semi-quantify organic environmental contaminants, with a particular emphasis on transformation products. These efforts uncover hidden risks in environmental systems and contribute to the development of more effective pollution monitoring strategies.