Ambient advances

You know that a topic is on the up when a review appears in the literature describing the latest advances that have been made. This is certainly the case for ambient mass spectrometry, for which three reviews have been published in quick succession. This technique, in which ionisation takes place in the open air with little or no sample preparation, is beginning to find real-life applications in industry. The reviews are:

• Mass Spectrometry: Recent Advances in Direct Open Air Surface Sampling/Ionization

• Mass spectrometry imaging under ambient conditions

• Applications of ambient mass spectrometry in high-throughput screening

[Image: courtesy Aston Labs, Purdue University]