Archive for February, 2013

European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry 2013 and Plasma Award

As you already know if you are following us on twitter, the European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry 2013 was held on February  10 – 15, 2012 in Krakow, Poland. The conference, chaired by JAAS Editorial Board member Joanna Szpunar and co-chaired by Pawel Koscielniak, was very successful, as approximately 500 participants presented 26 invited lectures, 100 oral contributions and more than 220 posters, while more than 25 companies participated in the exhibition. Moreover, several excellent workshops were organised.

Among the highlights of the conference, in addition to the excellent social events where all participants could appreciate the hospitality of Polish people, the Opening ceremony in which JAAS Editorial Board member Norbert Jakubowski received the 2013 European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry has to be featured. The laureate presented his excellent work on Development of ICP-MS based methods for label free detection of (semi)metals in single cells. Congratulations, Norbert!

JAAS sponsored a poster Award consisting in one personal electronic subscription to JAAS, an iPod Nano and a certificate, and the winner was Georgia Sanabria for her work on an Alternative method for fast and precise Pb isotope ratio determination in crude oil, asphaltenes kerogen and sedimentary rocks by GC-MC-ICPMS, coauthored by Christophe Pécheyran, Sylvain Berail, Olivier F.X. Donard from CNRS / Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour. Congratulations!

We would like to remind you that there is a JAAS Themed Issue devoted to this conference. If you want to submit a work that was presented in Krakow, please remember that the deadline for submission is April 1st, 2013.

Finally, the next Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry will be hosted in Amelia Island (Florida), chaired by JAAS Advisory Board Member Ramon Barnes.

The Chair, Joanna Szpunar and JAAS Editor, May Copsey

Dr. Norbert Jakuboswki, Plasma Award laureate

JAAS poster Award

Night in Krakow

Hot plasma party

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JAAS issue 3 now online

JAAS Front Cover, Issue 3, 2013

Quétel et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 320

We have two covers in this latest issue of JAAS and they will both be free to read for 6 weeks. On the outside front cover is work from Christophe Quetel and colleagues at the EC – Joint Research Centre – Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements in Belgium. They have been testing the limits of strontium isotope ration measurements using MC-ICPMS.

Isotope ratio measurements by MC-ICPMS below 10 μL min−1 under continuous sample flow conditions. Exploring the limits with strontium
E. Paredes, D. Goitom Asfaha and C. R. Quétel
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 320-326
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30209H

JAAS Inside front cover, Issue 3, 2013

Hu et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 334

On the inside front cover we have an image from Wuhan University, China, where Bin Hu and colleagues have been looking at the speciation of selenium in cells. This type of elemental speciation work is important for metallomics research.

Speciation of selenium in cells by HPLC-ICP-MS after (on-chip) magnetic solid phase extraction
Beibei Chen, Bin Hu, Man He, Qian Huang, Yuan Zhang and Xing Zhang
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 334-343
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30280B

We also have a couple of HOT articles for you to read. Both will be free to access until Feb 28th.

JAAS Editorial Board member Gary Hieftje and co-workers at Indiana University USA, have a paper where schlieren imaging and infrared (IR) thermography were utilized to visualize plasma-gas flow and heat transfer, respectively, from a pin-to-capillary geometry flowing atmospheric-pressure afterglow (FAPA) ambient ionization source.

Visualization of mass transport and heat transfer in the FAPA ambient ionization source
Kevin P. Pfeuffer, Jacob T. Shelley, Steven J. Ray and Gary M. Hieftje
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 379-387
DOI: 10.1039/C3JA30353E

And from Jan Kratzer, at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the ASCR, Czech Republic, has together with co-workers investigated plumbane generation and subsequent preconcentration of lead species on quartz surface using radiometry and autoradiography.

Hydride generation – in-atomizer collection of Pb in quartz tube atomizers for atomic absorption spectrometry – a 212Pb radiotracer study
Jan Kratzer, Stanislav Musil, Miloslav Vobecký and Jiří Dědina
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, 28, 344-353
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30263B

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Elemental Imaging Themed Issue: submissions still open

Soon we will be publishing a themed issue on Elemental Imaging in the field of analytical atomic spectrometry. The aim is to highlight imaging techniques and methods, including a mixture of both fundamental advances and exciting new applications.

Guest edited by:
Jorge Pisonero, University of Oviedo
Vincent Smentkowski, General Electric Global Research
Nerea Bordel, University of Oviedo

The submission deadline for the forthcoming themed issue of JAAS on Elemental Imaging was February 8th. We are still currently accepting submissions for this issue.

If you work in the field of elemental imaging submit your work today!

All articles will be peer-reviewed, and to be suitable for publication, must meet the usual quality and significance standards of the journal.  Please indicate in your covering letter that your article is to be considered for the Elemental Imaging theme. Email jaas-rsc@rsc.org for more information.

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Detecting lead at ultratrace levels

Determination of lead at ultratrace levels

Lead is a toxic heavy metal harmful to our digestive, immune and nervous systems following ingestion or inhalation. Therefore, the development of new methodologies to detect lead even at ultratrace levels is necessary.
A compact trap and atomizer device to pre-concentrate lead and determine ultratrace levels has been developed in the past. However, a strong interference of bismuth during the lead pre-concentration procedure is observed. To explain the bismuth interference, Jan Kratzer and colleagues from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the ASCR, Czech Republic, quantify the trapping and volatilization efficiency of lead with a new radiotracer employing a Pb radioactive indicator. This recent study improves the understandings of the currently developed quarz trap atomizer device and demonstrates that the radiotracer approach is a powerful tool in method development.

To know more about this work, please access the link below. This paper will be free to read until February 28th.

Hydride generation – in-atomizer collection of Pb in quartz tube atomizers for atomic absorption spectrometry – a 212Pb radiotracer study
Jan Kratzer ,  Stanislav Musil ,  Miloslav Vobecký and Jiří Dědina
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30263B

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