The Analyst Editorial team at our Christmas meal
We’d just like to wish all our readers, authors and referees a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We look forward to your continued support in 2011 – don’t forget we will go to 24 issues, which means twice as many opportunities to enjoy Analyst!
Have a wonderful festive season,
The Analyst Editorial Team.
Analyst, Volume 136, Issue 2, Page 213-416
Analyst 2011, Volume 136, Issue 2 is now available online.
On the front cover: A review discussing recent developments in plasma-based mass spectrometry for chemical speciation studies by Alfredo Sanz-Medel and co-workers.
The inside front cover features work by Cao Xia and Wang Ning on the development of brochantite nanorod-modified electrochemical sensors for the determination of ascorbic acid.
Both articles will be FREE to access for six weeks – enjoy browsing and let us know what you think of anything in this issue by posting a comment below.
The sensor detects diallylsulfides in garlic - the more diallylsulfides, the stronger the flavour
How strong is your garlic? No, this isn’t some poor attempt at humour – the strength of garlic is a genuine concern for the food industry.
In their just-published Analyst paper, Richard Compton and his team from the University of Oxford describe an electrochemical sensor that detects the amount of diallylsulfides in garlic, compounds related to strength of flavour.
The sensor works by suspending garlic purée samples in a solution containing bromide ions. The solution is analysed voltammetrically whereby electrogenerated bromine reacts with diallylsulfides to regenerate bromide. This results in an increase in peak current, which quantifies the response.
Want to know more? Read Elinor Richards’ news article at Chemistry World or access the paper in full below:
Towards the electrochemical quantification of the strength of garlic
Benjamin C. M. Martindale, Leigh Aldous, Neil V. Rees and Richard G. Compton
Analyst, 2011, 136, 128-133
DOI: 10.1039/C0AN00706D
But this isn’t Prof. Compton’s first foray into food analysis. Take a look at his 2008 paper which assessed the heat of chillies:
Carbon nanotube-based electrochemical sensors for quantifying the ‘heat’ of chilli peppers: the adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of capsaicin
Roohollah Torabi Kachoosangi, Gregory G. Wildgoose and Richard G. Compton
Analyst, 2008, 133, 888-895
DOI: 10.1039/B803588A
Professor John B. Fenn, 1917-2010
Professor John B. Fenn, who received the the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for his work in electrospray ionization, passed away on Friday December 10 at the age of 93.
His work was instrumental in enabling the rapid analysis of the structure of proteins and other biomolecules via mass spectrometry, and Prof. Fenn remained a mainstay at scientific conferences and an active researcher well into his 90s.
You can see Prof. Fenn’s Nobel Lecure, “Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants” on the official website of the Nobel Prize.
A remarkable scientist and an inspiration to many, there is no doubt that John Fenn will be greatly missed.
Hot off the press: Chemical Science paper from Analyst Editorial Board member Graham Cooks:
Accelerated bimolecular reactions in microdroplets studied by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
Marion Girod, Encarnacion Moyano, Dahlia I. Campbell and R. Graham Cooks
Chem. Sci., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0SC00416B, Edge Article
