Atomic spectrometry update. Industrial analysis: metals, chemicals and advanced materials

It is a noticeable trend over the last couple of review periods that the number and quality of nuclear applications has been increasing. That trend has continued into this year. Semiconductors and other electronic components continue to become smaller and utilise more pure materials; hence analysing them becomes more difficult. This is especially true when depth-resolved data is required. Techniques capable of analysing with ever increasing depth resolution are therefore necessary and many studies into this have been reported. There is still a large interest in the non-destructive analysis of archaeological or historical materials (glasses, ceramics, paintings etc.). The use of solid sampling techniques that cause minimal damage is therefore still gaining in popularity. This is especially true for laser-based techniques such as LIBS and laser ablation, although the many variants of the X-ray-based techniques are also still proving very popular. The increasing trend to use multiple analytical techniques, ideally simultaneously to cause minimal damage and to obtain the maximal number of results in the shortest time, is also noted. These attempts to obtain maximum information are, again, mainly true for historical artefacts where obtaining more analytical information will lead to a better understanding of provenance, manufacturing process, etc. The real time analysis being undertaken in engines and at coal fired boilers is also an interesting development. These real time analyses allow monitoring of the systems and enable any deviations from peak performance to be identified and corrected in the shortest time possible. This is the latest review covering atomic spectrometric measurements of industrial materials, metals, chemicals and advanced materials. It follows on from last year's review(1) and should be read in conjunction with other reviews in the series.(2-6)