Developments in the Atomic Spectrometry Updates

The Atomic Spectrometry Updates (ASU) have been a regular feature of JAAS since the journal was established in 1986. The content and structure of this series of six critical reviews has changed over the years to reflect the key issues in atomic spectrometry. Among the early innovations were Updates for XRF and inorganic MS, while the individual reviews have evolved along with the science. Two years ago, during the annual Board Meeting, there was an extensive discussion concerning how ASU was organized and how best to present current and future developments. From this debate, and subsequent work by the ASU Executive, it was proposed that four of the Updates (Environmental Analysis, Clinical & Biological Material, Foods & Beverages, X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, Industrial Analysis: Metals, Chemicals and Advanced Materials) should continue in their current format and that two new Updates should be established.

The writing teams recognised that the volume of fundamental work within inorganic MS, AAS, AES and AFS no longer justified two full reviews and that these topics could be included in a single new Update. The gap created by this merger then provided the opportunity for something completely new and a number of research areas were considered as potential candidates. The notion for an Update devoted to speciation has occasionally been advanced over several years. The topic is included in most of the Updates and the published literature has increased enormously in the last five years as more powerful and sophisticated analytical systems have been introduced. And so, it was proposed that the time was right for this subject to form part of the ASU series.

Thus, it was agreed at the 2008 ASU Board Meeting to introduce Updates covering ATOMIC SPECTROSCOPY and ELEMENTAL SPECIATION. This decision required some reorganization within ASU to provide time for the new writing teams to gather the yearly material, review the content and to write the Updates, in line with the JAAS production schedule for 2009. These objectives have been successfully realised with the publication of the Atomic Spectroscopy ASU in June, while this issue sees the launch of the ASU for Elemental Speciation.

Some initial speculation that Elemental Speciation might diminish the existing Updates should be dispelled when this article is read. It will be seen that the authors have constructed their own format quite separate to the approaches adopted in the sibling reviews and that, as in the past, the different Updates quite naturally complement each other.

When considering the scope of the new ASU covering elemental speciation, a number of factors were discussed within the writing group. It was strongly felt that the material covered should fall within the IUPAC guidelines, which define speciation as follows: speciation analysis is the analytical activity of identifying and/or measuring the quantities of one or more individual chemical species in a sample; the chemical species are specific forms of an element defined as to isotopic composition, electronic or oxidation state, and/or complex or molecular structure; the speciation of an element is the distribution of an element amongst defined chemical species in a system.

The review therefore deals with all aspects of the analytical speciation methods developed for: the determination of oxidation states; organometallic compounds; coordination compounds; metals and heteroatom-containing biomolecules, including metalloproteins, proteins, peptides and amino acids; and the use of metal-tagging to facilitate detection via atomic spectrometry. The review will not, however, specifically deal with operationally defined speciation which is covered by other ASUs, particularly the Environmental Analysis review. Whilst ASUs deal with methods based on atomic spectrometry, it was felt that to meet the needs of the readership and the subject area, those methods which are based on the determination of molecules and provide structural information should also be included.

Clearly, the structure of the Elemental Speciation ASU will evolve overtime as the review matures and the significant research trends become better established. The first review contained in this issue of JAAS reflects the structure of the other ASU reviews, particularly the one covering Clinical & Biological Material, Foods & Beverages. The main aim is that, as with the other ASUs, the Elemental Speciation ASU is an aid to the research of scientists working in this key discipline.

It is anticipated that both Atomic Spectroscopy and Elemental Speciation will, like the other ASUs, feature regularly among the 10 most accessed articles shown on the JAAS website.

Andrew Taylor

Chris Harrington

Members of the ASU Executive Committee

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