Atomic Spectrometry Update—Industrial Analysis: Metals, Chemicals and Advanced Materials

Abstract

This Atomic Spectrometry Update is the first to appear under the new title of “Industrial Analysis.” Changes have been made in the structure of the review to reflect the rapid growth of what is now being conceptualised in the industry as Advanced Materials development. There is a strong synergy between this new field and the Metals and Chemicals areas with which it overlaps, which it is hoped will be evident from this review.

Undoubtedly, the main themes of the present ASU have focused around the demand for information on structure and form. This impetus arises from two sources. Firstly, although there are many reports of improvements in the efficiency of sample preparation and automation, these steps will always be rate determining, given the speed of analysis of current instrumentation. Consequently there has been a much higher level of activity in the development of techniques for the direct analysis of solids than for some time. Clearly issues of heterogeneity (or homogeneity) of the sample and limits of technique will have an influence on the interpretation of the analytical result which may potentially contain structural information. The development of “effect” materials in the metallurgical, electronics and composites fields are consequently beginning to provide such challenges. Secondly, from an analytical point of view, there is a recognition that the tools available for such work are perhaps less well developed in atomic spectroscopy than for liquid analysis. The enabling technologies are beginning to emerge, and will be in the forefront of developments in atomic spectroscopy in the next decade.

A number of reviews of general interest have been published in the year covered by this ASU. These include articles on chemical analysis at solid surfaces (89/1090), AAS for direct solid sample analysis (89/2117), the principles and application of resonance ionisation spectroscopy to solid sample analysis (89/715) and laser sampling (89/304). The increasing application of MS techniques (such as GD-MS, SSMS and SIMS) in the inorganic analysis of solid samples has been comprehensively assessed (88/1974). The analysis of high-purity substances by atomic spectrometric techniques has also been reviewed (88/2253). Sample preparation techniques and practices for XRF will undoubtedly be of general interest to industrial laboratories (89/336, 89/843). Also in the XRF context, an overview of the status of cryogenic detectors has been published (89/1638). Non-metals are not particularly easy to determine by atomic spectrometric methods, but a comprehensive review of the present state of the art is worthy of attention (89/1770).