From the Editor
No Slowdown in Scientific Innovation
In the midst of 2009's market upheaval and economic turbulence, one thing has remained consistent, and more to the point, consistently positive: the rapid advancement of mass spectrometry technology and techniques. While the overall spectroscopy market has been predicted by many to show continued decline and by many others to have a major rally by year's end, the debate over the science behind the marketplace has never been in doubt.
David Walsh
Rapid advancements in MS instrumentation, the development of novel techniques, and even quantum leaps in software and data handling have all marked a year of great progress for practitioners of mass spectrometry and its numerous and varied hyphenated techniques.
Even a cursory glance at this issue's table of contents illustrates that there has been no slowdown in scientific innovation. An updated and expanded glossary of MS terms and acronyms leads off the issue, and even though Spectroscopy columnist Ken Busch last published this invaluable resource only three years ago, there have been so many changes in terminology in the interim that he needed an additional four pages to include them all. In addition, you'll find articles covering all of the hottest techniques and application areas, with research on food safety, pesticide analysis, and metabolite identification in pharmaceutical research, as well as research involving MS-based techniques from ICP-MS to LC–MS-IT-TOF.
If there is a hot technique or application area in the field of mass spectrometry, chances are you will find it covered here or in a future issue in the Current Trends in Mass Spectrometry series. And as always, we value not only your feedback but your contributions as well. As this series has grown, the amount of unsolicited content from the scientific community has also grown by leaps and bounds, so feel free to contact us with not only your opinions but with your own research ideas as well.
We look forward to hearing from you soon — enjoy the issue.
David Walsh
Editor-in-Chief
Getting accurate IR spectra on monolayer of molecules
April 18th 2024Creating uniform and repeatable monolayers is incredibly important for both scientific pursuits as well as the manufacturing of products in semiconductor, biotechnology, and. other industries. However, measuring monolayers and functionalized surfaces directly is. difficult, and many rely on a variety of characterization techniques that when used together can provide some degree of confidence. By combining non-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) and IR spectroscopy, IR PiFM provides sensitive and accurate analysis of sub-monolayer of molecules without the concern of tip-sample cross contamination. Dr. Sung Park, Molecular Vista, joined Spectroscopy to provide insights on how IR PiFM can acquire IR signature of monolayer films due to its unique implementation.
Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy Reveals Influence of Defects on 2D Semiconductor Devices
April 25th 2024A recent study used deep level transient spectroscopy to investigate the electrical response of defect filling and emission in monolayer metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown materials deposited on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible substrates.
