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Editorial Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2010
Editorial
Analytical applications ofsynchrotron radiation
Rafael Abela*, Daniel Grolimund*, Erno Pretsch*
Synchrotron radiation was discovered more than60 years ago. In the past three decades, when synchro-tron radiation has been explored as an analyticalresearch tool, there has been exponential growth insynchrotron-based research. More than 50 synchrotronlight sources have been built world-wide and newfacilities are in construction or the planning phase. Inmany cases, these large-scale facilities are operated asopen-access user facilities. Generally, support, bothfinancial and scientific, is available to interested users. Itseems, however, that many analytical chemists have notyet really recognized the extraordinary capabilities ofsynchrotron-based analytical methods.
Synchrotron light is usually generated by electronsaccelerated close to the speed of light traveling throughspecially-designed magnetic structures (undulators) andbending magnets. Synchrotron light sources producephotons of a broad spectral distribution, with wave-lengths ranging from infrared to hard X-rays. Synchro-tron radiation exhibits several exceptional properties.Most outstanding are its extremely high brillianceand absolute photon-flux intensity. Compared toconventional laboratory light sources, the brilliance is upby more than 10 orders of magnitude (!), while the fluxis superior by more than three orders of magnitude.
In analytical applications, other special characteristicsof synchrotron light are of great interest: tunability of
Rafael Abela*, Daniel Grolimund*
Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Erno Pretsch*
Institute Biogeochemistry & Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, CH-8092
Zurich, Switzerland
* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected],
452 0165-9936/$ - see front m
the wavelength; high degree of polarization; well-definedtime structure; and, coherence. This combination ofunique properties offers unsurpassed analyticalcapabilities [e.g., tight focusing (down to the tens ofnanometers), generating very short light pulses (withspecial devices, down to the femtosecond range) or noveltypes of multi-dimensional chemical imaging].
This Special Issue gives a flavor of the amazingpossibilities provided by these unique properties ofsynchrotron radiation. Several contributions demon-strate the reduction in size of the species by X-rayfluorescence and infrared spectroscopy, with detectionlimits in the femtogram range. A fascinating noveldevelopment is ultrafast X-ray analysis that allowsstructural information to be obtained about not onlysingle molecules but also chemical intermediates.
Synchrotron radiation also sets new standards inchemical imaging. Another contribution presentsapplications of different synchrotron-based methods tocharacterizing electrochemical systems. Finally, emerg-ing future trends, with a huge increase in brightness andtime resolution, are described by presenting the possi-bilities of a planned X-Ray Free Electron Laser.
We hope that the contributions collected in thisSpecial Issue will motivate analytical chemists to makemore frequent use of the unprecedented possibilities of-fered by synchrotron radiation.
atter ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trac.2010.04.002
