Saturday, September 6, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Policy

Forever chemical pollution can now be tracked

August 7, 2024
in Policy
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Scientist in lab
65
SHARES
592
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

Organofluorine compounds — sometimes called ‘forever chemicals’ — are increasingly turning up in our drinking water, oceans and even human blood, posing a potential threat to the environment and human health.

Scientist in lab

Credit: Jackson School of Geosciences/University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Organofluorine compounds — sometimes called ‘forever chemicals’ — are increasingly turning up in our drinking water, oceans and even human blood, posing a potential threat to the environment and human health.

Now, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a way to fingerprint them, which could help authorities trace them to their source when they end up in aquifers, waterways or soil.

The technique involves passing samples through a strong magnetic field then reading the burst of radio waves their atoms emit. This reveals the composition of carbon isotopes in the molecule and gives the chemical its fingerprint, a feat that had not previously been achieved with forever chemicals.

The work is important because it allows scientists to track the spread of forever chemicals in the environment, said Cornelia Rasmussen, a research assistant professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics at the Jackson School of Geosciences.

“Ultimately we will be able to trace molecules and see how they move,” said Rasmussen, who co-led development of the technique. “For example, whether they just stay where they got dumped or whether they’re moving downstream.”

The new technique was described in a paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The super strong molecular bonds that give forever chemicals their handy characteristics — which are put to use in everything from fire retardants to non-stick surfaces and slow-release drugs — also keep them from breaking down in the environment, causing them to build up as pollution in soil and organic material to which they easily stick

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to regulate forever chemicals, which include PFAS, and eliminate most of them from drinking water. However, the molecular bonds of the chemicals also make them difficult to trace. That’s because conventional chemical fingerprinting involves breaking molecules apart in a mass spectrometer which doesn’t work well with the tough molecular bonds of forever chemicals.

Instead, the researchers turned to a technology called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which measures a molecule’s structure and identifies its isotopes without breaking it apart.

Isotopes refer to chemical elements with differences in the number of neutrons in its atoms. Forever chemicals are made by bonding carbon isotopes to the element fluorine, which almost never happens in nature. Once the molecular bonds form, they are virtually unbreakable.

The researchers’ technique uses the NMR instrument alongside their own computational tools to determine the mix of carbon isotopes at each position in the molecule. Because the mix of carbon isotopes bonding to each fluorine atom is unique to how the chemical was manufactured, this information can be used like a fingerprint to trace a chemical.

It’s like a built-in barcode for molecules, said coauthor, David Hoffman, an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biosciences in UT’s College of Natural Sciences.

“Part of the reason this has worked out so well is because we’re assembling tools from different areas of science [chemistry and geosciences] that don’t normally mix and using them to do something no one’s really done before,” he said.

The researchers tested their technique on samples that included pharmaceuticals and a common pesticide. Rasmussen and Hoffman are now conducting a pilot study to see how the technique will fare on pollutants that show up in the city of Austin’s creeks and wastewater. If successful, the technique could be useful for state and federal agencies who want to track the spread of water-borne forever chemicals.

Rasmussen said that the work has opened up a new layer of isotope information in organic chemistry that could find many applications beyond tracking forever chemicals, such as detecting counterfeit drugs or astrobiology. Her ultimate goal, however, is to take the technique even further afield.

“It’s given us a whole range of possibilities to learn really interesting things about metabolism on early Earth,” she said. “It could even tell us whether organics on Mars are the last remnants of some ancient Martian life.”

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences program.



Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.4c02250

Article Title

Fingerprinting Organofluorine Molecules via Position-Specific Isotope Analysis

Article Publication Date

18-Jul-2024

Share26Tweet16
Previous Post

Using photos or videos, these AI systems can conjure simulations that train robots to function in physical spaces

Next Post

ACC Asia 2024 explores emerging trends, evidence-based strategies for improving global heart health

Related Posts

blank
Policy

Duke-NUS Enhances Population Health Strategies to Tackle Escalating Healthcare Costs and Chronic Disease Challenges

September 5, 2025
blank
Policy

C-Path’s Translational Therapeutics Accelerator Achieves Record Seven BRIDGe Awards Advancing Novel Cancer, Infectious Disease, Neurology, and Immunology Therapies

September 4, 2025
blank
Policy

Unlocking Potential: The Promises and Challenges of the Drone Revolution in Modern Agriculture

September 4, 2025
blank
Policy

Investigation Reveals Millions in Taxpayer Funds Awarded to Researchers Linked to Fictitious Network

September 4, 2025
blank
Policy

EWG Study Reveals PFAS Water Treatment Effectively Reduces Toxic PFAS and Carcinogens

September 4, 2025
blank
Policy

Ushering in a New Era of Global Agricultural Ecology and Environmental Science

September 4, 2025
Next Post
ACC Asia 2024 explores emerging trends, evidence-based strategies for improving global heart health

ACC Asia 2024 explores emerging trends, evidence-based strategies for improving global heart health

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27544 shares
    Share 11014 Tweet 6884
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    959 shares
    Share 384 Tweet 240
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    643 shares
    Share 257 Tweet 161
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    510 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 128
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    313 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Cylindrical Universe: Unpacking F(R, G) Complexity

  • Robot-Enhanced Storytelling Sparks Young Minds’ Computation
  • Microbiome’s Hidden Role in Early Tumor Development
  • Flood Risk and Land Use Changes in Yellow River Basin

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,183 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Discover more from Science

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading