GGR Biennial Critical Review: Analytical Developments Since 2012

Abstract

Advances in the chemical, crystallographic and isotopic characterisation of geological and environmental materials can often be ascribed to technological improvements in analytical hardware or to innovative approaches to data acquisition and/or its interpretation. This biennial review addresses key laboratory methods that form much of the foundation for analytical geochemistry; again, this contribution is presented as a compendium of laboratory techniques. We highlight advances that have appeared since January 2012 and that are of particular significance for the chemical and isotopic characterisation of geomaterials. Prominent scientists from the selected analytical fields present publications they judge to be particular noteworthy, providing background information about the method and assessing where further opportunities might be anticipated. In addition to the well-established technologies such as thermal ionisation mass spectrometry and plasma emission spectroscopy, this publication also presents new or rapidly growing methods such as electron backscattered diffraction analysis and atom probe tomographya very sensitive method providing atomic scale information.

Development of routines for simultaneous in situ chemical composition and stable Si isotope ratio analysis by femtosecond laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

“…Whereas the achievable spatial resolution with SIMS (typically below 10 µm) is higher compared to LA-MC-ICP-MS, the demands on sample preparation and reference materials are higher for SIMS (e.g., see review by Wiedenbeck et al [11]). Isotope ratio measurements have not yet been combined with simultaneous elemental analysis using only SIMS.…”

GGR Biennial Critical Review: Analytical Developments Since 2014

“…Since Mary Horan provided excellent reviews of advances in TIMS analysis in the last two GGR Biennial Reviews (Wiedenbeck et al . , ), this section tries to focus on recent advances in isotopic determination utilising the TIMS technique in the areas of instrument and analytical method development.…”

“…In the last GGR Biennial Review (Wiedenbeck et al . ), Mary Horan highlighted the main advantages and disadvantages, as well as some applications, of the higher feedback 10 12 Ω or 10 13 Ω resistors (relative to the default 10 11 Ω resistors) connected to the current amplifiers for multi‐collector (MC) TIMS. Although the higher feedback resistors have higher Johnson–Nyquist noise, the signal‐to‐noise ratio is improved typically by a factor equal to the square root of the increased resistance of the resistor relative to the default 10 11 Ω resistor (Koornneef et al .…”

2015 Atomic Spectrometry Update – a review of advances in X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and their applications

“…Thus Adams 7 provided a review of developments over the last 50 years from straightforward measurements within a narrow wavelength range to complex higher-order interactions within multispectral and hyper-spectral imaging methods that produce massive amounts of data. A critical review was offered by Wiedenbeck et al 11 concerning analytical developments since 2012 in geo-standards and geoanalysis. Such imaging applications suggest a need for increasingly complex data evaluation tools based on reliable statistics and chemometrics.…”

“…5 Archaeological and cultural heritage 3.6 Forensic 3.7 Clinical 3.8 Drugs 3.9 Biological 3. 11 Chemical state and speciation 4 Abbreviations 11 Chemical state and speciation 4 Abbreviations …”