by Professor D. E. Games, Mass Spectrometry Research Unit, University College of Swansea Sample preparation can be viewed as occupying a Cinderella role in analytical science. However, the quality of sample preparation plays a key role in high In the past decade, there has been quality analysis and deserves higher stature. considerable interest in the use of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) as an alternative to conventional procedures for the preparation of samples for ana lysis. The driving force for this development is the need for automated, sim pler, faster, non-destructive and selective methods for extraction, preferably using non-toxic extraction media which are easily disposed of. Utilization of supercritical fluids for extraction fulfils these requirements because of their unique physical chemical properties and usually low toxicity. Selectivity can be achieved by suitable selection of pressure (density), temperature and modi fier conditions which enable solvating power to be varied. The high diffusivity of supercritical fluids provides rapid sample penetration and extraction. Use of fluids with low critical temperatures enables extraction to be conducted under mild thermal conditions ensuring that thermally labile compounds do not decompose. The technique can be used off-line, and the extracts analysed by appropriate techniques, or it can be used on-line, by coupling with a variety of chromatographic techniques. These can then, if necessary, be coupled fur ther with spectroscopic techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared, ultra violet or mass spectrometry, to provide specific identification or structural information."

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy is widely used as a research tool in bioch- istry and biophysics. These uses of fluorescence have resulted in extensive knowledge of the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules. This information has been gained by studies of phenomena that affect the excited state, such as the local environment, quenching processes, and energy transfer. Topics in Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Volume 4: Probe Design and Chemical Sensing reflects a new trend, which is the use of time-resolved fluorescence in analytical and clinical chemistry. These emerging applications of time-resolved fluorescence are the result of continued advances in laser detector and computer technology. For instance, pho- multiplier tubes (PMT) were previously bulky devices. Miniature PMTs are now available, and the performance of simpler detectors is continually improving. There is also considerable effort to develop fluorophores that can be excited with the red/ne- infrared (NIR) output of laser diodes. Using such probes, one can readily imagine small time-resolved fluorometers, even hand-held devices, being used fordoctor's office or home health care.

Over the last several years, the field of materials science has witnessed an explosion of new, advanced materials. They encompass many uses and include superconductors, alloys, glasses, and catalysts. Not only are there quite a number of new enhies into these generic classes of materials, but the materials themselves represent a wide array of physical forms as well. Bulk materials, for example, are being synthesized and applica tions found for them, while still other materials are being synthesized as thin films for yet still more new (and in some cases, as yet unknown) applications. The field continues to expand with (thankfully ) no end in sight as to the number of new possibilities. As work progresses in this area, there is an ever increasing demand for knowing not only what material is formed as an end product but also details of the route by which it is made. The knowledge of reaction mechanisms in their synthesis many times allows a researcher to tailor a preparative scheme to either arrive at the final product in a purer state or with a better yield. Also, a good fundamental experimental knowledge of impuri ties present in the final material helps the investigator get more insight into making it."

The series Topics in Current Chemistry presents critical reviews of the present and future trends in modern chemical research. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience. Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.

This volume is a continuation of the five volumes of "The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements" (published 2006). It expounds on topics in actinide science that are undergoing rapid scientific developments and that are germane to the safe development of nuclear energy in the 21st century, from nuclear fuels to the environmental science and management of waste.

The scope of Volume 6 encompasses: actinides in the geosphere, subsurface interactions of actinides species with microorganisms, chemistry of nuclear fuels, actinide waste forms and radiation effects, analytical chemistry of plutonium, actinide chalcogenide compounds, molecular spectroscopy and reaction of the actinide ions in the gas phase and rare gas matrices, and hydrothermal synthesis of actinide compounds.

This volume is written by active practitioners and recognized experts in their specialty areas. Each of the topics represents the current state of knowledge in this fascinating area of science and technology.

This volume, written by a range of international experts, covers a wide range of topics involving organic fluorine compounds. Each chapter is preceded by a summary and includes extensive illustrations and references. The chapters cover atmospheric chemistry, application of 19F NMR, partition, degradation and transformation, naturally occurring organic fluorine compounds, toxicology of perfluoroalkanes and phosphorofluoridates, and application of aromatic compounds to the elucidation of the mechanism of cytochrome P450.

Bewitched is an odd word with which to begin a chemical textbook. Yet that is a fair description of how I reacted on first leaming of ion exchange and imagining what might be done with it. That initial fascination has not left me these many years later, and it has provided much ofthe motivation for writing this book. The perceived need for a text on the fundamentals of ion chromatography provided the rest. Many readers will have a general idea of what ion chromatography is and what it does. Briefly, for those who do not, it is an umbrella term for a variety of chromatographie methods for the rapid and sensitive analysis of mixtures of ionic species. It has become highly developed in the last decade, and while it is now routinely used for the determination of organic as weH as inorganic ions, its initial impact was greatest in the area of inorganic analysis. In the past the determination of inorganic ions, particularly anions, meant laborious, time-con suming, and often not very sensitive "wet chemieal" methods. In the last ten years that has changed radically as ion chromatography has supplanted these older methods."

The book deals with various consequences of major nuclear accidents, such as in 1986 in Chernobyl and in 2011 in Fukushima. The public is extremely interested in learning more about the movements and risks posed by radiation in the environment related to food supply and food safety. Radionuclides are found in air, water, soil and even in us not only after nuclear accidents because they occur also in nature. Every day, we ingest and inhale radionuclides in our air and food and the water. This book provides a solid underpinning of the basic physical-chemistry and biogeochemistry of naturally occurring and anthrop radioactivity. The mechanisms of radioactive element transfer in the atmosphere, tropospheric and stratospheric diffusion of radioactivity, environmental contamination from accidents and the impact of atmospheric pollution on the food chain, soil and plants, are analyzed and the analytical methods are illustrated. The question of natural radioactivity concentration in building materials is addressed too. While the book contains many case studies and data for Greece, it is of general value. It contributes to the development of international environmentally safe standards and economically reasonable standard regulations based on justified radiological, social and economical legislation concepts.

With their similarity to the organs of the most advanced creatures that inhabit the Earth, sensors are regarded as being the "senses of electronics": arti?cial eyes and ears that are capable of seeing and hearing beyond the range of - man perception; electronic noses and tongues that can recognise odours and ?avours without a lifetime training; touch that is able not only to feel the texture and temperature of the materials but even to discern their chemical compo- tion. Among the world of chemical sensors, optical devices (sometimes termed "optodes", from the Greek "the optical way") have reached a prominent place in those areas where the features of light and of the light-matter interaction show their advantage: contactless or long-distance interrogation, detection sensitivity, analyte selectivity, absence of electrical interference or risks, and lack of analyte consumption, to name just a few. The introduction of optical ?bres and integrated optics has added more value to such sensing since now light can be con?ned and readily carried to dif?cult-to-reach locations, higher information density can be transported, indicator dyes can be immobilised at the distal end or the evanescent ?eld for unique chemical and biochemical sensing (including multiplexed and distributed measurements), optical s- sors can now be subject to mass production and novel sensing schemes have been established (interferometric, surface plasmon resonance, ?uorescence energy transfer, supramolecular recognition . . . ).

Conference Overview and the Role of Chemistry in High-Temperature Materials Science and Technology LEO BREWER Department of ChemistIy, University of California, and Materials and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720 I don't want to compete with the fascinating historic account that John Drowart gave us, but I would like to go through the history of high don't get the reaction that I get from temperature symposia. I hope I some of my classes when I say, "Remember when such-and-such hap pened during the War?" And I get this blank look, and one of the students will say, "I wasn't born until after the Korean War. " Neverthe less, during World War II, many people in the high-temperature field had their first initiation. But there was one handicap. Owing to security measures, they were not able to interact with one another. Following the War, it was recognized that the high-temperature field was going to expand to meet the demands for materials with unique properties. To meet the demands for new fabrication techniques, it was important to establish better communications among various people. High-tempera ture symposia were established at that time and have continued very frequently, and I'd like to point out why they are especially important for this field. One problem is that it is not easy to work at high temperatures."

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of environmental aspects of the Sava River, which is the greatest tributary to the Danube River and the major drainage river system of South Eastern Europe. Hydroelectric power plants, river traffic, intensive agricultural activities, heavy industry and floods have considerable influence on the environment and biota in the basin. Summarizing the results that were gathered in the course of EU, bilateral and national projects, the book highlights the most important stressors and helps readers to better understand the impact of anthropogenic activities on the function of river basins. Topics include: transboundary water cooperation between the riparian countries; climate change projection, including its impact on flood hazards; evaluation of anthropogenic pollution sources; pollution of sediments, metal bioavailability and ecotoxicological and microbiological characterization of the river. The biological part also addresses quality aspects related to wildlife in river aquatic ecosystems (algae, macrophytes, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates and fish) and riparian ecosystems (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). The general state of biodiversity and pressures caused by invasive aquatic species are also discussed.

Environmental chemistry is a fast developing science aimed at deciphering fundamental mechanisms ruling the behaviour of pollutants in ecosystems. Applying this knowledge to current environmental issues leads to the remediation of environmental media, and to new, low energy, low emission, sustainable processes. Nanotechnology applications for alternative energies such as solar power, fuel cells, hydrogen and lithium batteries are reviewed in the first section. Recent investigations on carbon nanotubes, nanocatalysts and cyclodextrins disclose unprecedented techniques to monitor and clean pollutants such as greenhouse gases, heavy metals, pesticides, pathogens occurring in water, air and soil. The second section reviews the risks for human health of critical pollutants such as endocrine disruptors, dioxins and heavy metals contaminating seafood and sediments. An exhaustive review of DDT isomers reveals unexpected mechanisms of DDT transfer to fishes. A chapter on pollutant geochronology using river sedimentary archives provides novel insights on pollution history since the beginning of the anthropocene.

This book will be a valuable source of information for engineers and students developing novel applied techniques to monitor and clean pollutants in air, wastewater, soils and sediments.

"

Emerging Mass Spectrometric Tools for Analysis of Polymers and Polymer Additives, by Nina Aminlashgari and Minna Hakkarainen. Analysis of Polymer Additives and Impurities by Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry and Capillary Electrophoresis/Mass Spectrometry, by Wolfgang Buchberger and Martin Stiftinger. Direct Insertion Probe Mass Spectrometry of Polymers, by Jale Hacaloglu Mass Spectrometric Characterization of Oligo- and Polysaccharides and Their Derivatives, by Petra Mischnick. Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry for Molecular Level Understanding of Polymer Degradation, by Minna Hakkarainen.

The analysis of solid materials by introducing solid test sampies directly into the graphite furnace of an atomic absorption spectrometer must be regarded as a powerful analytical approach. Even if it is - of course - not the "ultimate method." After three decades of development, the instrumentation and the methodology are available to apply solid sampling successfully for the analysis of almost every material. Moreover, several tasks cannot be solved using other analytical methods as neatly as they can using direct solid sampling. The conventional methods work more or less satisfactorily, so why do we sug gest applying solid sampling much more extensively than it is today? To begin with, the features pointed out time and again should be named: Rapidity of the analytical procedure, low susceptibility to analyte loss or contamination, very smallquantities can be analyzed, and expenditure on instrumentation and per sonell is also low. These properties are examined and the necessary conditions are discussed (Chapter 1) as are the analytical tasks (Chapter 6) for which use of this method is advantageous. Other features that are often overlooked are just as important: The simplicity of the analytical procedures allows the analyst to main tain an intimate relationship with the original scientific task that has to be solved with the analysis. Furthermore, the considerable reduction of working place haz ards and pollution by avoiding the use of chemical reagents must nowadays be assessed as a feature as important as the others."

This book deals with the concept of moments, and how they find application in subsurface hydrologic problems-particularly those dealing with solute transport. Both temporal and spatial moments are dealt with in some detail for a wide variety of problems. Several examples using experimental data, both from laboratory columns and field experiments, are provided to give the readers a clear idea about the scope of this method.

"Microwave-Assisted Sample Preparation for Trace Element Analysis" describes the principles, equipment, and applications involved in sample preparation with microwaves for trace element analysis. The book covers well-established applications as well as new trends in this field. Hot topics such as sample preparation for speciation, metabolomics, and halogen determination, as well as the alternatives of sample preparation for special samples (for example, carbon nanotubes, polymers, petroleum products), are also discussed.

The use of microwaves in sample preparation has increased in recent decades. Several applications of microwaves for sample preparation can be found in the literature for practically all types of sample matrices, especially for the determination of trace elements by atomic spectrometric techniques, safely and cleanly reducing the time involved in this step. Microwave-assisted sample preparation is not only a tool for research but also for routine analysis laboratories; the state-of-the-art in sample preparation in trace element analysis. This book is the only resource for chemists specifically focused on this topic.
The first book to describe the principles, equipment, and applications in microwave-assisted sample preparationWritten by experts in the field who provide a comprehensive overview of the important conceptsIntroduces new alternatives and trends in microwave-assisted techniques

This book presents a unified outlook on counter-current, ion size exclusion, supercritical fluids, high-performance thin layers, and gas and size exclusion chromatographic techniques used for the separation and purification of organic and inorganic analytes. It also describes a number of green techniques, green sample preparation methods and optimization of solvent consumption in the chromatographic analysis of organic and inorganic analytes. This book offers a valuable resource not only for learners, but also for more experienced chromatographers, conveying a deeper understanding of green chromatographic techniques, green solvents and preparation methods.
"

Chemical Analysis for Forensic Evidence provides readers with the fundamental framework of forensic analytical chemistry, describing the entire process, from crime scene investigation to evidence sampling, laboratory analysis, quality aspects, and reporting and testifying in court. In doing so, important principles and aspects are demonstrated through the various forensic expertise areas in which analytical chemistry plays a key role, including illicit drugs, explosives, toxicology, fire debris analysis and microtraces such as gunshot residues, glass and fibers. This book illuminates the underlying practical framework that governs how analytical chemistry is used in practice by forensic experts to solve crime. Arian van Asten utilizes a hands-on approach with numerous questions, examples, exercises and illustrations to help solidify key concepts and teach them in an engaging way.

Number 25 of this acclaimed series breaks new ground with articles on charge transfer across liquid-liquid interfaces, electrochemical techniques to study hydrogen ingress in metals, and electrical breakdown of liquids. Also included are articles on the measurement of corrosion and ellipsometry, bringing these older subjects up to date.

The development of mechanistic organic chemistry is filled with claims of short-lived reactive intermediates connecting starting material to product. In many ways this book represents a personal odyssey of the editor in this area of chemistry. I well remember my introduction to organic chemistry as an undergraduate working in the laboratories of Shelton Bank at SUNY Albany in the early 1970s, and the excitement and frustration attending the piecing together of the details of a reaction mechanism by working backwards from the stable products of the reaction. In those days the reaction and the reactive intermediates flew by too rapidly to permit direct observation. Thus it came as something of a revelation to me as a graduate student at Yale that it was possible to slow down a reaction and actually "see" such ephemeral species as carbenes and biradicals by spectroscopic methods, by generating them photochemically at cryogenic temperatures. In this monograph several chap ters are devoted to low-temperature studies. Dougherty has described the matrix EPR spectra of biradicals, which were pure conjecture only ten years ago. Michl and Arnold have described the matrix spectroscopy of cyciobutadiene, a molecule that has fascinated organic chemists for over a hundred years. They have shown that by using a combination of matrix spec troscopic methods it is possible to learn nearly as much about the structure of cyciobutadiene, the prototypical antiaromatic biradicaloid, as about that of a common shelf-stable reagent."

Recognized experts present incisive analysis of both fundamental and applied problems in this continuation of a highly acclaimed series. Topics discussed include: A thorough and mathematical treatment of periodic phenomena, with consideration of new theories about the transition between `order' and `chaos'; Impedance spectroscopy as applied to the study of kinetics and mechanisms of electrode processes; The use of stoichiometric numbers in mechanism analysis; The electro-osmotic dewatering of clays with important implications for the processing of industrial waste and geotechnical; stabilization; Magnetic effects in electrolytic processes and the electrolytic Hall effect; and The computer analysis and modeling of mass transfer and fluid flow. These authoritative studies will be invaluable for researchers in engineering, electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, materials science, physical chemistry, and corrosion science.