Analysis techniques future prospects

Majors [13] has compiled the results of his perspectives survey of 14 leading separation scientists with an interest in CEC. As expected, there is a wide divergence in the opinions of these leaders with regard to current issues and future prospects for CEC. However, few underestimated the current technological difficulties of column manufacture, reproducibility of chromatographic and electro-osmotic properties of the packed capillary, and the short-term problems of competing with HPLC or CE, but the majority of scientists interviewed believe that like any new technique, these problems will be overcome and that CEC will become a routine method of analysis in time. 

In addition to the numerous elemental characterisations of ambient particles, we have recently seen more applications in fundamental physico-chemistry. This includes laboratory studies on gas-particle reactions, e.g. sea salt or soil dust with nitric acid. Environmental SEM (ESEM) or environmental TEM (ETEM) does offer excellent future prospects in this field. In ESEM and ETEM, it is possible to obtain high quality images and to do some chemical analysis while the gaseous environment around the sample is controlled i.e. vacuum in the neighbourhood of the sample is not necessary, the relative humidity can be varied and a temperature around — 30 °C can be maintained). Ice nucleation properties of individual atmospheric particles have also been studied recently. Both ESEM and ETEM are relatively new techniques, of which the potential has not fully been explored. 

This chapter summarizes work on multianalyte detection approaches using various formats of flow-based analysis methods, classified according to the type of analytical technique to which the FIA system has been coupled. An overview of relevant efforts in this area is discussed, and some examples of relevant approaches are highlighted, along with future prospects and challenges. 

The prospects of DSC, have been reviewed in a special issue of Thermochimica Acta, which includes a collection of articles on advances of thermal analysis in the twentieth century and expected future developments [232,235,236]. This journal and the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, where research articles about DSC and its applications are often published, are very useful sources of information on the technique. Although relatively old, the reviews by McNaughton and Mortimer [237] and by Mortimer [238] contain excellent examples of applications of DSC to molecular thermochemistry studies. The analytical uses of DSC, which are outside the scope of this book, can be surveyed, for example, in biannual reviews that appear in the journal Analytical Chemistry [239],... 

The autoanalyzer represented a substantial advance in the ability to make repetitive on-board chemical measurements. The development of flow-injection analysis promises to enlarge enormously the scope and speed of such methods. The flow-injection methods were pioneered in clinical chemistry, and are being developed for oceanography by Kenneth S. Johnson and Robert L. Petty. Dana Kester and Richard W. Zuehlke are also developing new autoanalyzer techniques for the rapid analysis of certain trace metals in seawater. One of the most technologically exciting prospects for the future involves the use of fiber optics to transmit a spectroscopic signal from an in-situ sensor to the ship s deck. 

In contrast to previous explosive periods, we have every expectation that research by both physicists and chemists on liquid crystals will continue to accelerate for the foreseeable future for several salient reasons. The first is the variety and importance of systems in which liquid crystals are observed—in biological systems and in items of commerce such as detergents and polymers. The second is the new instrumental techniques to evaluate the intermolecular forces which determine the properties of the unique liquid crystalline state. These techniques include differential thermal analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance. We are now in the eye of this activity and have the happy prospect of a stimulating future in a continuing growth period for studying both ordered fluids and liquid crystals. 

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