Archive for March, 2012

The Thermo-Hilger Award is now open for nominations!

Thermo-Hilger Award – Call for nominationsThe Thermo-Hilger Award which is awarded by the RSC Atomic Spectroscopy Group is now open for nominations. Nominations are invited from members who use atomic spectroscopy regularly who are in the early stages of their career (must be under 35 at the end of 2012). The winner will be a scientist with a proven track record whom the committee judge to offer the greatest potential for the future.

Information about the bursary and the application form can be found here.

The closing date for applications is 30th April 2012, so send in your nominations now!

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HOT Article: Characterization of silver nanoparticles

Carsten Engelhard and colleagues from the University of Münster, Germany, have been testing the analytical performance of three different sample introduction systems in regards to the characterization of silver nanoparticles. There is a growing amount of environmental concern about the risks of engineered nanomaterials. In order to provide accurate risk assessments and advise on policies, it is important to be able to accurately characterize nanomaterials in a quick and sensitive way. Click through and take a look at their research in this area, now published with JAAS.

Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: evaluation of three different pneumatic and piezo-based sample introduction systems for the characterization of silver nanoparticles

Engelhard et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article

Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: evaluation of three different pneumatic and piezo-based sample introduction systems for the characterization of silver nanoparticles
Bastian Franze, Ingo Strenge and Carsten Engelhard
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA00003B

This article will be free to read for 2 weeks!

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HOT Articles from JAAS

It’s been a busy year already with so many great articles, so here are some HOT articles from JAAS that you might have missed this month!

Why not take a look, they will be free to read for 2 weeks.

Roman glass across the Empire: an elemental and isotopic characterization
Monica Ganio, Sara Boyen, Thomas Fenn, Rebecca Scott, Sofie Vanhoutte, Domingo Gimeno and Patrick Degryse
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10355A

Mapping changes in helium sensitivity and peak shape for varying parameters of a Nier-type noble gas ion source
Jennifer Mabry, Peter Burnard, Pierre-Henri Blard and Laurent Zimmermann
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10339G

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FACSS presents SCIX 2012 – Call for papers

Abstract submission is open for the SCIX 2012 meeting presented by the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS). SCIX will be held in Kansas City, MO, USA, from September 30 – October 5.

The submission deadline for abstracts that will be considered for oral presentation is April 20, 2012. Abstracts will be accepted until July 31 for poster presentations. Please visit http://scixconference.org for abstract submission and further information.

Steven Ray, SCIX 2012 Program Chair and coauthor of this entry, has identified several focal areas that will be highlighted in the 2012 program:

  • Current status of the analytical sciences: focus on human health (organized by RSC and ACS)
  • Atomic spectrometry and the analysis of nanomaterials
  • Speciation analysis: progress in trace metal speciation
  • New plasmas, new instrumentation, and new approaches at the frontier of atomic spectrometry
  • Isoscapes: redefining the landscape in the archaeological and geological sciences with high fidelity isotope ratio analysis
  • Sampling the world with laser ablation and atomic spectrometry
  • Chemistry in arts and archaeology
  • Novel sample introduction techniques and tools for atomic spectroscopy
  • Fundamental aspects of plasma spectrochemistry: using what we learn to improve analytical atomic spectrometry

Contributed sessions will be added to the program as space allows. If you do not see a program area above that fits your research focus, don’t let it stop you from submitting a paper!

We look forward to seeing you in Kansas City.

Carsten Engelhard
SCIX 2012 Atomic Spectroscopy Program Section Chair

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Pittcon 2012 – Orlando

Exhibition floor

The 2012 Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy, Pittcon, was held on March 11 – 14, 2012 in Orlando, Florida.

Over ~1,280 oral presentations and ~100 short courses on all aspects of analytical chemistry were presented.

Clearly, one highlight of the scientific program was the session entitled “Advancing analytical technologies for human health and security”, organized by Dr. May Copsey, Editor of the Analytical journals at RSC.  Distinguished scientists Prof. Gary M. Hieftje, Prof. Joseph Caruso, Prof. R. Kenneth Marcus, Prof. Roy Goodacre, and Prof. Zheng Ouyang gave well-received lectures on their recent discoveries.

Prof. R. Graham Cooks, Purdue University, gave the Sunday plenary lecture and demonstrated how ambient ionization and miniaturized mass spectrometers can help to promote human health and forensics.

(You can find some recent examples of these authors’ work below – May Copsey, Ed.)

A number of new analytical instruments were launched at Pittcon. Of interest to a large number of JAAS readers might be the new iCAP Q ICP-MS, launched by Thermo Scientific on March 12. This new instrument comes shortly after the launch of Agilent’s new 8000 ICP-QQQ at the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in January 2012. Great to see that the ICP-MS market is back in motion again.

The RSC booth on the exhibition floor was very busy thanks to free coffee and – more importantly – the presence of RSC journal editors and staff. Many visitors stopped by to meet, greet, and to learn about new things at RSC.

Exhibition centre

Interestingly, the exhibition was smaller compared to previous years and major companies, namely Perkin Elmer and Agilent Technologies, skipped the show. In total, approx. 15,500 attendees visited the conference and expo.

If you attended the conference and would like to share your experience, please leave a comment below.

Pittcon 2013 will be held in Philadelphia, PA, March 17 – 21, 2013.

We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia.

Of course, this is just a personal view and many more instruments from other companies are available as well. For more information please visit, e.g., the scientific instruments database provided by EVISA.

Articles of interest

Thermal mechanism for formation of electrical prepeak and pressure waves in a microsecond direct current pulsed glow discharge with a Grimm-type source: a modeling investigation
Maxim Voronov, V Hoffmann, Wolfgang Buscher, Carsten Engelhard, Steven J Ray and Gary M Hieftje
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI:10.1039/C2JA30014A

Significant proteins affecting cerebral vasospasm using complementary ICPMS and MALDI-MS
Renee N. Easter, Colin G. Barry, Gail Pyne-Geithman and Joseph A. Caruso
Metallomics, 2012, 4, 48-55
DOI: 10.1039/C1MT00079A

Systems level studies of mammalian metabolomes: the roles of mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Warwick B. Dunn, David I. Broadhurst, Helen J. Atherton, Royston Goodacre and Julian L. Griffin
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2011, 40, 387-426
DOI: 10.1039/B906712B

Femtosecond laser ablation particle introduction to a liquid sampling-atmospheric pressure glow discharge ionization source
Anthony J. Carado, C. Derrick Quarles, Andrew M. Duffin, Charles J. Barinaga, Richard E. Russo, R. Kenneth Marcus, Gregory C. Eiden and David W. Koppenaal
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 385-389
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10331A

Rapid Analysis of Whole Blood by Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry for Point-of-Care Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
Ryan D Espy,  Nicholas E Manicke,  Zheng Ouyang and R. Graham Cooks
Analyst, 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2AN35082C

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JAAS Issue 4 now online!

Issue 4 of JAAS is now available online.

On the front of the journal this month is a picture from Joshua  R. Dettman and John W. Olesik from The Ohio State University, USA. John is actually our Regional Associate Editor for the Americas and is on our Editorial Board.  Their paper is on the use of a single element calibration standard in semi-quantitative ICP-OES analysis. Using this method they were able to measure a total of 66 elements.

Assessment of a simple partial LTE model for semi-quantitative ICP-OES analysis based on one single element calibration standard
Joshua R. Dettman and John W. Olesik
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 581-594
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10256K

JAAS Issue 4 inside front coverOn the inside front cover we have a colourful image from Joachim Franzke and colleagues from the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften in Germany. Their work has focused on the development of a new type of microhollow cathode discharge that can be used in analytical microplasma gas detection.

Development of a novel dielectric barrier microhollow cathode discharge for gaseous atomic emission spectroscopy
Cordula Meyer, Daniel Demecz, Evgeny L. Gurevich, Ulrich Marggraf, Günter Jestel and Joachim Franzke
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 677-681
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10225K

These articles have been made free to access for 6 weeks so make the most of this and take a look!

This issue also features the following Hot articles:

Effect of a mass spectrometer interface on inductively coupled plasma characteristics: a computational study
Maryam Aghaei,  Helmut Lindner and Annemie Bogaerts
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 604-610
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10341A

CellSpace: A module for creating spatially registered laser ablation images within the Iolite freeware environment
Bence Paul,  Chad Paton,  Ashley Norris,  Jon Woodhead,  John Hellstrom,  Janet Hergt and Alan Greig
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 700-706
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10383D

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Join up with JAAS at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Winter Conference in South Korea!

2012 Asia-Pacific Winter Conference (2012 APWC), Jeju Island, South Korea
August 26th-29th 2012

South of Jeju Island

South of Jeju Island, South Korea

Reminder for Early Bird Registration submission deadline May 1st, 2012

The 2012 APWC will feature developments in spectrochemical analysis by inductively coupled plasma (ICP), AAS, GFAAS, various plasma sources, laser sources (LIBS, laser ablation) and chromatography. More than 200 scientists are expected with over 300 papers on modern plasma spectrochemistry . A three-day exhibition will feature new plasma instrumentation and many supporting products. Three plenary lectures, Company Invitation Lectures, and about 20 invited speakers will highlight each topic.

JAAS will be publishing a themed issue from the conference (more details for this will follow soon). Take a look at some of the papers published in the themed issue from the 2010 Asia Pacific Winter Conference, held in Chengdu, China.

Its going to be hot! Did you know that the average August temperature in Jeju is 36.5 degrees!

We look forward to seeing you in Korea!

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Atomic spectrometry in Central and Eastern Europe: submissions open

We will be publishing a web themed issue comprising work from Central and Eastern Europe in the field of analytical atomic spectrometry.  The aim is to highlight, to the wider international community, the achievements in analytical atomic and mass spectrometry made by the researches from this area.

The Guest Editors for this collection are Professor Jiří Dědina of Charles University in Prague, and Professor Pawel Pohl of Wroclaw University of Technology.

Manuscripts are welcome until the submission deadline on 1 June 2012.

Names of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Find out more, including how to submit

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