Atomic Spectrometry Update: review of advances in elemental speciation

This is the 14th Atomic Spectrometry Update (ASU) to focus on advances in elemental speciation and covers a period of approximately 12 months from December 2020. This ASU deals with all aspects of the analytical atomic spectrometry speciation methods developed for: the determination of oxidation states; organometallic compounds; coordination compounds; metal and heteroatom-containing biomolecules, including metalloproteins, proteins, peptides and amino acids; and the use of metal-tagging to facilitate detection via atomic spectrometry. As with all ASUs, the focus of the research reviewed includes those methods that incorporate atomic spectrometry as the measurement technique. However, because speciation analysis is inherently focused on the relationship between the metal(loid) atom and the organic moiety it is bound to, or incorporated within, atomic spectrometry alone cannot be the sole analytical approach of interest. For this reason, molecular detection techniques are also included where they have provided a complementary approach to speciation analysis. This year, the number of publications covered has fallen, quite possibly due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic restricting laboratory access, but the number of elements covered remains high at over 30. The most popular elements are still As, Hg and Se, whilst more workers are using some form of separation to reduce the dissolved ion signal when undertaking analysis for NPs. There has also been an increase in the number of papers reporting on field deployable miniaturised devices for elemental speciation, a trend which will surely continue as the associated technologies develop more robust and less power hungry portable excitation sources