X-ray Spectrometry / Ezine
Crystallography without the crystals: Porous for support
Date: May 1, 2013
Author: David Bradley
Makoto Fujita of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Kari Rissanen of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have used a porous substrate to bring order to an uncrystallisable target molecule for X-ray diffraction studies, which precludes the need to develop a method for producing crystals of the material. The technique allows nanogram quantities of the target compound to be analysed, the researchers say.
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Photosynthesis:Study sheds new light
Date: Apr 15, 2013
Author: David Bradley
Caltech chemists believe they can now explain one of the last remaining mysteries concerning the process of photosynthesis in which light powers chemical conversion of carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen. The work is based on synthetic, spectroscopic, and electrochemical studies, including X-ray spectroscopic work, and might one day lead to a range of novel photocatalysts that could be used to drive the water-splitting reactions in a synthetic analogue of photosynthesis.
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Journal Highlight: A tunable multicolour rainbow filter for improved stress and dislocation density field mapping in polycrystals using X-ray Laue microdiffraction
Date: Apr 8, 2013
Author: spectroscopyNOW
A new rainbow method for measuring the energy profiles of Laue spots while remaining in the white-beam mode proceeds in the opposite way compared to a monochromator-based method, by simultaneously removing several sharp energy bands from the incident beam.
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Paintable electronics: Bringing polymers into line
Date: Apr 1, 2013
Author: David Bradley
Engineers at the University of Michigan and electronics company Samsung in Korea have devised a method for bringing otherwise unruly semiconducting polymers into line as verified by X-ray diffraction studies, which they suggest might one day pave the way for cheaper, greener, "paint-on" plastic electronics.
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Carbon capture: Porous trap for greenhouse gas
Date: Mar 15, 2013
Author: David Bradley
Scientists at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the University of South Florida (USF), USA, have developed a unique, efficient, cost-effective as well reusable metal-organic framework (MOF) material, for trapping and separating carbon dioxide from various gas streams. These crystalline materials could lead to clean-air and energy-saving technologies.
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Journal Highlight: Gilding and pigments of Renaissance marble of Abatellis Palace: non-invasive investigation by XRF spectrometry
Date: Mar 11, 2013
Author: spectroscopyNOW
The chemical composition of pictorial layers and their stratigraphical distribution on renaissance marble sculptures from Abatellis Palace, Palermo, have been characterised by UV-vis fluorescence and XRF measurements.
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A message for you: Mercury's turbulent past
Date: Mar 1, 2013
Author: David Bradley
X-ray spectroscopy and astronomical analyses reveal that Mercury - the planet closest to the Sun - may have had a vast, roiling ocean of liquid rock, or magma, during its very early history some 4.5 billion years ago.
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Pablo Picasso: Decorator
Date: Feb 15, 2013
Author: David Bradley
What type of paint did one of the most renowned and infamous artists of the twentieth, century, Pablo Picasso, use in his work - matte, gloss or emulsion? The Art Institute of Chicago and scientists at Argonne National Laboratory think they know having used a hard X-ray nanoprobe to help them unravel what is a decades-long debate among art scholars.
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Journal Highlight: Comparison of plain vertebral X-ray and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry for the identification of older women for fracture prevention in primary care
Date: Feb 11, 2013
Author: spectroscopyNOW
The effects of the amended dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry diagnostic cut-off in the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for primary fracture prevention therapy with alendronate on case finding and cost have been assessed in older women.
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Hydrogen from silicon: Just add water
Date: Feb 1, 2013
Author: David Bradley
Two techniques, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight-secondary-ion-mass-spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), have been used in parallel to show how adding water to silicon can generate hydrogen. The work might take us another step closer to the so-called carbon-free hydrogen economy.
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