Rechargeable electrochemical batteries, as one of the most versatile
energy storage technologies, play a central role in the ongoing
transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy for achieving a gr...
More than 100 tons of dead fish have been hauled out of the River Oder,
which flows along part of Poland's border with Germany. Officials warned
people not to enter the water while the Polish governme...
Life is often about making a choice or the best possible compromise
between two aspects that seem to stand diametrically opposed to each
other. For example, staying out late for dinner with friends wh...
Multicollector inductively coupled mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) has
become the workhorse of isotope ratio mass spectrometry since its
introduction 25 years ago. Over this time, there have been dramat...
In the drive toward a future no longer dependent on burning fossil fuels
for energy generation, several technologies have become front runners in
the race to reduce carbon emissions and improve air qu...
As countries across the world accelerate their efforts to move away from
fossil fuels, lithium ion batteries have rapidly become established as a
key component in the drive to greener energy alternati...
In a recent poll I carried out about sustainability initiatives, a lot
of the respondents replied that they considered new, more efficient
agricultural practices such as vertical and precision agricul...
Hello again to those of you who joined my first and second ICP-MS
expeditions through the Group 1 and Group 2 elements of the Periodic
Table respectively, and a warm welcome to those of you who have j...
Like many others in the past few months, I have been tasked to find new
solutions to problems I did not realize existed. For example, working
from my home office instead of going to the Thermo Fisher ...
Meat is an essential nutritional source of protein for humans who choose
to consume it and can provide high biological protein, vitamins, and
essential minerals such as iron and zinc. People that are ...
Welcome back to those of you who joined my first ICP-MS expedition
through Group 1 of the Periodic Table (the alkali metals), and hello to
those of you who have just joined me here!Our expedition cont...
The Periodic Table is one of the most familiar creations in the world of
chemistry. Since Dmitry Mendeleev first proposed that different elements
could be related together in rows and columns accordin...
When you think of what techniques might be useful for analyzing single
cells, ICP-MS is not an immediately obvious choice. However, with its
sensitivity, versatile sample introduction capability and s...
Arsenic is an element with a well-established reputation for being
decidedly unpleasant. Its use as a poison is documented as far back as
the first Century, when Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the ...
What is High Resolution?Sometimes, samples at trace level produce strong
matrix interferences. These interferences muddy the waters, so to speak,
obscuring your analyte of interest, and you cannot lea...
In part 1 of this series, I covered the issues of contamination and
sample-to-sample memory effects in ICP-MS and how you can solve them. In
part 2, I moved on to the challenge of interferences and ho...
In the first part of this series, I discussed the problem of
contamination in ICP-MS and how you can solve it. In this second part, I
will delve into the tricky issue of interferences and how you can
...
Getting good and consistent results for trace element analysis using
ICP-MS can be a daily challenge. For a start, contamination lurks
everywhere, ready to trip you up. Next, there is the problem of
s...
In part 1 of this blog post series, I covered the most notable problems
encountered when analysing selenium using single quadrupole ICP-MS,
namely Ar2+ and ArCl+ interferences, as well as the trouble ...
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an insoluble and inactive material that is
used as a coloring additive in many foods to make them look pretty and
appealing to eat. It is used as a whitening and brightening...
Spectr’Atom is a premier bi-annual, atomic spectrometry conference for
France, which takes place in the picturesque city of Pau, on the edge of
the Pyrenees mountain range. This year, the conference, ...
Arsenic ToxicityIt’s well known that arsenic is toxic, but what’s less
well known is that its toxicity depends on the chemical form in which
it’s present. Inorganic arsenic compounds, such as arsenite...
The one parameter in analytical liquid chromatography that has been
consistently increasing has been the pump pressure of HPLC (high
performance liquid chromatography) and UHPLC (ultra-high performanc...
Researchers found that gas giant Jupiter likely formed only shortly
after the formation of the Sun, about 4.6 billion years ago, making
Jupiter the oldest planet in our solar system.How did they find ...
One of the more annoying tasks that I find myself having to perform at
least once every few days is cleaning my glasses. I initially try wiping
them with my shirt, but that only succeeds in spreading ...
In trace elemental analysis, people are used to looking at
concentrations of toxic elements to determine whether drinking water is
safe, soils are free from contamination and pharmaceutical products a...
Trace Elements in Pharmaceuticals – The Details on USP <232> and ICH
Q3DThe arrival of 2017, following as it does on the back of a
politically momentous 2016, heralds the start of the one year countdo...
Although it might seem longer, quadrupole ICP-MS technology has only
existed since the early 1980s. What we recognise as ICP-MS (inductively
coupled plasma - mass spectrometry) started life as the com...
Christmas season is upon us – it has been here since the moment
Halloween ended. Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is not even a fully
recognized holiday anymore. It’s become the “we’re halfway to
Christ...
I love being a homeowner because it gives me the freedom to take on
small home repair projects and makes me a superhero mom to my kids. The
other day, my son scraped his knee while playing outside. Wh...