JAAS News

The analysis of Pb isotopes is used in several fields, including ore formation studies, environmental studies and U–Pb geochronology. But sample sizes can also be very small, making precise measurements difficult. One method to compensate for this, is adding silicagel as an ionisation activator for Pb isotopic analysis. Magdalena H. Huyskens, Tsuyoshi Iizuka and Yuri Amelin at The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, have run a series of tests, comparing three commercially available colloidal silicagels. Read their results by clicking on the title below.

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

Evaluation of colloidal silicagels for lead isotopic measurements using thermal ionisation mass spectrometry
Magdalena H. Huyskens,  Tsuyoshi Iizuka and Yuri Amelin
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30083D

Olesik & Gray, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article

This month we have a HOT article from our Associate Editor for the Americas, John W. Olesik and Patrick J. Gray, from Ohio State University, USA. Nanoparticles and microparticles are used in so many products nowadays, but the rapid, simultaneous characterization of their elemental chemical composition is very tricky. In the following paper, the unique considerations to determine the number of particles per liter and analyte mass (particle size) distributions from single particle ICP-MS measurements using quadrupole or sequential sector field mass spectrometry is explored.

Considerations for measurement of individual nanoparticles or microparticles by ICP-MS: determination of the number of particles and the analyte mass in each particle
John W. Olesik and Patrick J. Gray
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30073G

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

David. W. Hahn from the University of Florida, USA, and colleagues from the USA and Germany, take a closer look at the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in the analysis of micro- and nanoparticles. They give a short review of the recent research in this area, both fundamentals and applications, including new experimental work regarding aerosol particle analysis. This article will be free to access for 2 weeks, so click on the title below to read more.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for analysis of micro and nanoparticles
Prasoon K. Diwakar, Kristofer H. Loper, Anna-Maria Matiaske and David. W. Hahn
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30012E

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

Michael Okruss and co-workers from Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany, have used graphite tubes with internal diameters of 1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm (mini tubes) in high resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS GF AAS). The use of these mini tubes allows high absolute sensitivity and ultra-trace analysis of small samples. Click on the title below to read more!

Graphite tubes with small internal diameters tailored for high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry
Mao Dong Huang, Helmut Becker-Ross, Michael Okruss, Sebastian Geisler and Stefan Florek
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30057E

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

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

Surface topography reconstruction by stereo-PIXE
Ebrahim Gholami Hatam, Primož Pelicon, Mohammad Lamehi-Rachti, Primož Vavpetič, Omidreza Kakuee, Nataša Grlj, Miha Čekada and Vahid Fathollahi
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 834-840
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA10373G

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
M. Voronov, V. Hoffmann, W. Buscher, C. Engelhard, S. J. Ray and G. M. Hieftje
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30014A

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

Manuel Miró from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, and colleagues have studied the advanced characterization of woody biofuels in an attempt to determine if firing biomass fuels will lead to potential corrosion risks in combustion devices. To accomplish this they devised a sequential injection (SI) stirred-flow chamber (SFC) extraction process as a front end to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis. Click through here to read more!

Automatic dynamic chemical fractionation method with detection by plasma spectrometry for advanced characterization of solid biofuels
Warunya Boonjob, Maria Zevenhoven, Paul Ek, Mikko Hupa, Ari Ivaska and Manuel Miró
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JA00007E