The introduction of JAAS and the emergence of ICP-mass spectrometry

When looking backward at 1986, it seems to have been a year of mixed emotions. Science and technology suffered some blows, as the space shuttle Challenger exploded less than two minutes after its launching, the Chernobyl disaster contaminated the reputation of nuclear fission energy production forever and the first PC virus started to spread. However, it wasn't all bad. For the first time (and so far also for the last time), Belgium won the Eurovision song contest, the Belgian football (for US readers: soccer) team reached the semi-finals during the FIFA world cup in Mexico (again, first & last time) and … JAAS was launched. At that time, I wasn't aware of the latter event. I have to admit that, being 19 years old then, I had more attention for the Belgian national football team, joined the Beastie Boys in fighting for the right to party and tried to find some decent LPs (I had not changed my pickup for a CD player yet) among the rubbish released in large amounts in the eighties.

Also in that year, I took my first exam in “Analytical Chemistry” after Professor Richard Dams had introduced me and my fellow 2nd year chemistry students to analytical chemistry and did his very best to provide us with some insight into all types of chemical equilibria. Although by the end of that semester (and fortunately before the examination took place) the pieces of the puzzle finally came together and I recognized the “pattern”, I must admit that the traditional wet chemical analysis techniques that we were introduced to in the lab classes – volumetry and gravimetry – were not so appealing that my professional future immediately became clear. On the contrary, when asked by my former secondary school chemistry teacher from which field I would select a research project later on, I answered “I don't know yet, but definitely it won't be analytical chemistry!”. Little did I know that I would spend practically the entire rest of my life until present working in exactly that branch of chemistry.

Actually, if I had had access to JAAS at that time, my future would perhaps have been a little more clear already. In 1986, JAAS was launched and six issues of the journal appeared, corresponding to almost 80 papers and roughly 500 pages. This success already led to the editorial decision, announced in issue 5 by the chairman of the editorial board, to complement the six regular bimonthly issues with two special issues devoted to the BNASS and the European Winter Plasma conference, respectively. Until 1994, 8 issues were issued every year and as of 1994, JAAS appeared on a monthly basis.

In 1986, atomic absorption spectrometry clearly dominated the field, as approximately 50% of the papers were devoted to this technique and its applications. Atomic emission spectrometry came second with a score of about 25%, atomic fluorescence papers contributed for some 10%, while the fraction of papers devoted to ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the technique to which I was introduced in January 1988 and that since then plays a major role in my life, was only some 5%. Nevertheless, these first JAAS issues do undeniably already testify to the rise of this technique.

In issue 1, one can find a report on the first Surrey Conference on Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry wherein Barry Sharp concludes that “Perhaps the most important message to come from this conference was that ICPMS is a powerful technique with some unique attributes. When these are exploited it performs exceptionally well, but it is not a panacea and extending its applications depends on further research”. This was exactly the type of message that was used by my promoter to convince me to first start a Master thesis and later a PhD study devoted to ICP-MS. In issue 2, the erection of a UK ICP-MS users' group is announced and in the corresponding text, it is mentioned that at that time, already 10 ICP-MS instruments were in operation in nine labs in the UK. One of these UK users was Les Ebdon, who testified of a realistic view as he stated that “the early claims that ICP-MS would be virtually interference-free never fooled him” and from the beginning on he started looking for trouble under the form of spectral interferences (issue 5). In that viewpoint interview, one can find also another justified observation that for many years – for as long as I was working as a PhD student or postdoctoral fellow – did not matter very much to me, but that since I am heading a research group is also a constant plague to me: “Obviously, one of the major problems is still the cost of the technique and the running costs can be relatively high as well”. Some things never change. In that same double interview, Robert C. (Bob) Hutton comments on the spread of ICP-MS: “I believe today there are somewhere between 60–80 instruments in the field split between both manufacturers (VG and Sciex). The majority of the instruments are in North America and Canada, although there are about eight instruments in the UK, maybe eight instruments in Germany, several other instruments in the Far East, China and Japan.” Belgium joined the then select group of “ICP-MS owning countries” with the installation of a VG PlasmaQuad at Ghent University in 1987. Things apparently went fast for ICP-MS in 1986, as in the next JAAS issue (number 6) one of the fathers of ICP-MS, Alan Gray, mentions that after the commercial introduction of ICP-MS instrumentation in 1983, “a total of about 100 instruments supplied by the two manufacturers are now in use and several other systems are rumoured to be on the way” and he concludes very correctly that “this healthy youngster ICPMS has an important role to play in the future”. In the same issue, Jean-Michel Mermet kept his cool and was visionary in warning us that “It took years to optimize the ICP as a photon source and it will probably be the same for ICP-MS”, and indeed there is ample evidence for that in the JAAS issues of the years following 1986.

Of course, and fortunately, JAAS has never devoted its attention solely to ICP-MS and in the first six issues, next to the papers on atomic absorption, emission and fluorescence already referred to above, also articles on, for instance, X-ray techniques or quality assessment/quality assurance of measurements can be found, just like nowadays. JAAS also immediately started publishing the highly appreciated atomic spectrometry updates (ASU), providing the reader with a clear insight into recent publications and advances in particular fields of application – a valued habit that survived until today.

By checking the content of editorials, viewpoints and other front matter in the 1986 JAAS issues a couple of days ago, it also became clear to me that some things have never changed. I share, for instance, Gary Hieftje's impression (issue 1) that graduate students seem to work harder when their promoter is in the lab than when he is on a conference – or at least this seems to be a very stubborn misconception. Also the detection of “very lively activity” at the University of Oviedo reported in issue 4 does not come as a surprise from a current point of view. However, for the younger researchers in the field (and I have the audacity to still include myself into this category), it may come as a surprise that the rumour that one time the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry was organized in Hawaii is not merely an urban legend (issue 2)!

I was introduced to the journal in 1988 and have been reading it ever since. It took quite a while before I produced a paper myself that I found of sufficient quality to attempt getting it published in JAAS (1993) rather than in another journal. Time travels fast and this year JAAS already celebrates its 25th birthday. During these 25 years, the journal's importance to the field has increased and its current importance is underlined by the recent increase in its impact factor. This is the result of the hard work of many people throughout this quarter of a century and of the continued interest for and awareness of new developments in the field, such as elemental speciation, bulk and spatially resolved analysis of solid materials via laser ablation-ICP-MS, X-ray based techniques based on the use of synchrotron radiation and high-precision isotopic analysis via multi-collector ICP-MS, to only name a few.

Let's hope this attitude can be continued for the next 25 years, so that JAAS can continue fulfilling the role described by its first chairman of the editorial board, the late John S. Ottoway, in the first editorial ever published in JAAS: “to make a significant and lasting contribution to our science”!

Frank Vanhaecke

Department of Analytical Chemistry,

Ghent University,

Belgium

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