Florian Breider obtained his PhD in the field of the stable isotope biogeochemistry from the University of Neuchatel in 2013. This was followed by seven months of postdoc at EPFL in the Atmospheric Particles Research Laboratory and two years as research associate at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) where he conducted studies on nitrous oxide biogeochemistry in oceans.
From 2015 to 2018, he was research scientist in the Laboratory for Water Quality and Treatment at EPFL where he conducted research on disinfection by-products and antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Since May 2018, he is director of the Central Environmental Laboratory at the Institute of Environmental Engineering of EPFL.

Breider F., Salihu I., von Gunten U., (2018) Micro-heterogeneous catalysis of the N-nitrosation of secondary amines by micelles forming surfactants, Swiss Chemical Society Fall Meeting, Lausanne Switzerland Breider F., Piazzoli A., von Gunten U., (2018) Re-assessing the Formation of N-nitrosamines during Chloramination of Various Nitrogenous Compounds using Specific and Total N-nitrosamines Analysis, 2nd Disinfection and Disinfection By-Products Conference, Beijing, China Breider F., von Gunten U., (2017) Novel method for the quantification of the total N-nitrosamines concentration (TONO) in water, American Chemical Society Meeting, San Francisco, USA Yoshikawa C., Sasai Y., Makabe A., Breider F., Toyoda S., Matsui Y., Kawagucci S., Wakita M., Fujiki T., Harada N., Yoshida N., (2017) Development of a model of nitrous oxide in the western North Pacific, Japan Geoscience Union-American Geoscience Union Joint Meeting, Chiba, Japan Toyoda S.*, Kudo K., Breider F., Yamada K., Yoshida N., Sasano D., Kosugi N., Ishii M., Yoshikawa-Inoue H., Nishino S., Uchida H., Murata A., (2014) Distributions of methane, nitrous oxide and their isotopomers in the Arctic Ocean, 5th Symposium on Polar Science, Tokyo, Japan Breider F.* (2014) Intramolecular isotope analysis: potential applications in the environmental sciences, 2nd Workshop on «Intramolecular isotope analysis: technical issues and future applications», Tokyo, Japan Breider F.*, Yoshikawa C., Toyoda S., Yoshida N., (2014) Origin and fluxes of nitrous oxide in Western North Pacific: controls and potential consequences of ocean acidification, 7th International Symposium on Isotopomers, Tokyo, Japan Breider F.*, Yoshikawa C., Toyoda S., Yoshida N., (2013) Assessing the effect of oceans acidification on nitrous oxide formation using stables isotopes and isotopomers analysis. 3rd International Conference on Nitrification (ICoN3), Tokyo, Japan Breider F., Hunkeler,D.*, Jacobsen O.S., Laier T. (2013) Demonstrating a natural origin of chloroform in groundwater using stable isotope analysis. Groundwater Quality Conference (GQ13), Gainesville, FL, USA Breider F.*, Hunkeler, D., (2012) Investigating the natural formation of chloroform using carbon and chlorine stable isotopes. Gordon Research Conferences on Isotopes in biological and chemical sciences, Galveston, TX, USA Breider F.*, Albers C.N., Hunkeler, D., (2011) Isotopic evidence for the natural formation of chlorinated organic compounds in forest soils. EuCheMS International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment, Zurich, Switzerland Breider F.*, Albers C.N., Hunkeler, D., (2011) Assessing the role of trichloroacetyl-containing compounds in the formation of natural chloroform using carbon stable isotope. International Conference Isotope 2011, Géroux-les-Bains, France Breider F.*, Hunkeler, D., (2010) Origin and formation of chloroform in soils and groundwater assessed with compound-specific carbon isotope analysis (CSIA). Gordon Research Conferences on Environmental Sciences, Plymouth,NH, USA Breider F.*, Albers C.N., Hunkeler D., Jacobsen O.S., (2009) Carbon isotope signature of biogeogenic trichloromethane: a tool to discriminate anthropogenic and natural sources in soils.7th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Neuchâtel, Switzerland Breider F.*, Hunkeler D., Albers C.N., Laier T., Jacobsen O.S., (2009) Demonstrating a natural origin of chloroform in forest soils and groundwater using compound specific isotope analysis.19th International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry, Hamburg, Germany Breider F.*, Hassouna, M., Pfeifer H.-R., Abraham A., Garnier J.-M., (2008) Characterization of soil organic matter from flooded rice fields contaminated by geogenic arsenic in Bangladesh, 14th International Meeting of the International Humic Substances Society, St Petersburg, Russia Breider F., Hassouna M.*, Pfeifer H.-R., Vasos P., Abraham A., Garnier J.-M., (2008) Characterization of soil humic substances from contaminated flooded rice fields and evaluation of its reactivity with arsenic, Bangladesh, 2nd International Congress Arsenic in the Environment - Arsenic from Nature to Humans, Valencia, Spain

The influence of industrial effluents on the N-nitrosamines load in surface water and wastewater remains unclear. Moreover, the origin of N-nitrosamines in industrial wastewater is poorly understood and the occurrence and variability of N-nitrosamines concentration in industrial effluents have never been assessed. The aim of the present project is to answer the following research questions:
1. What is the concentration of specific N-nitrosamines in selected industrial effluents?
2. What is the relative contribution of specific N-nitrosamines to the total N-nitrosamine pool in industrial wastewaters?
3. What is the temporal variability of the specific and total N-nitrosamines concentrations in industrial effluent?
4. Are N-nitrosamine concentrations in industrial effluents correlated with other chemical species?

The occurrence and effects of meso- and micro-plastics in the aquatic environment are receiving increasing attention. In addition to their
possible direct adverse effects on biota, the potential role of plastics as vectors for hydrophobic organic chemicals and inorganic
materials is a topic of much debate.
To further improve the estimations of the role of plastics as vectors for toxic contaminants transfer into biota under varying environmental
conditions, it is important to identify and understand the governing processes.

In 1977 Okun and Archer have also shown that decyltrimethylammonium bromide micelles may catalyse the nitrosation of secondary amines. However, the mechanism of the micelle-catalysed nitrosation reaction is still unclear and how micelles and precursors properties affect the formation of N-nitrosamines was never studied in details. The aims of the present project are to (i) assess the effects of micelles-forming surfactants on N-nitrosamines formation yield during acid-catalysed nitrosation of secondary aliphatic amines, (ii) to determine how micelles properties such as charge, zeta-potential and diameter affect the formation of N-nitrosamines and (iii) to propose a mechanistic interpretation for micelles catalytic properties.

So far, the composition and the structure of N-nitrosamines constituting 90 to 99% of the total N-nitrosamines pool in water and wastewater are still unknown. The aim of this project is to identify new N-nitroso compounds using advanced mass spectrometry and IR-spectroscopy methods.

R/V Mirai Cruise Report MR13-06: Study on environmental changes in the sea-ice reduction regions of the Arctic Ocean (2013), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan R/V Mirai Cruise Report MR13-04: Change in material cycles and ecosystem by the climate change and its feedback (2013), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan