New Techniques in Analytical Chemistry: Transforming Modern Chemical Analysis

Analytical chemistry has entered a new era defined by speed, precision, automation, and sustainability. Emerging technologies are improving how scientists detect, quantify, and understand chemical substances across fields such as healthcare, environment, food safety, materials science, and pharmaceuticals. Below are the most impactful new techniques reshaping the discipline.




1. High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS): Unmatched Detection Power

High-resolution mass spectrometry, including Orbitrap and time-of-flight (TOF) systems, is now a leading tool for identifying trace-level compounds with exceptional accuracy. HRMS enables non-targeted analysis, allowing researchers to detect unknown contaminants, metabolites, or pollutants without prior knowledge. Its ultra-high resolving power makes it essential in environmental forensics, toxicology, and drug discovery.

2. Ambient Ionization Techniques: Fast and Direct Analysis

Techniques such as DESI (Desorption Electrospray Ionization) and DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time) allow samples to be analyzed without any preparation. This innovation cuts analysis time dramatically and enables real-world, on-site testing whether detecting explosives at airports or rapidly screening food products for adulteration.

3. Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip Systems: Compact yet Powerful

Microfluidic devices integrate entire analytical workflows onto a miniaturized chip. They require tiny sample volumes, reduce reagent consumption, and deliver fast results. These platforms are widely used in point-of-care diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and rapid biomarker detection, representing a major step toward portable analytical science.

4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Analytical Chemistry

AI is revolutionizing data interpretation, method optimization, and spectral pattern recognition. Machine learning algorithms can analyze huge datasets from chromatography, spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, identifying trends that are impossible to see manually. AI-based predictive models now assist in compound identification, retention time prediction, and reaction monitoring.

5. Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC): Eco-Friendly Approaches

New techniques emphasize reducing environmental impact. Innovations include solvent-free extraction, microextraction techniques, and water-based chromatography. These methods minimize chemical waste, reduce energy usage, and support sustainable laboratory practices, aligning analytical chemistry with global green chemistry goals.

6. Electrochemical Biosensors: Ultra-Sensitive and Real-Time Detection

Modern electrochemical sensors combine nanomaterials, DNAzymes, enzymes, and advanced electrodes to achieve extremely sensitive detection of biomarkers, pathogens, and pollutants. They allow real-time monitoring and can be integrated into wearable devices, medical diagnostics, and environmental sensors.

7. Advanced Spectroscopic Innovations: Raman, SERS, and NIR

• Spectroscopic technologies are becoming more powerful and accessible.
• Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) enables detection of single molecules.
• Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy improves rapid food and pharmaceutical testing.

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy provides insights into chemical reactions occurring in femtoseconds.
These tools deliver high-speed, non-destructive analysis across multiple industries.

 
8. Chromatography Upgrades: UHPLC and 2D Chromatography

Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) and two-dimensional chromatography (2D-LC) offer higher resolution, faster separation, and increased sensitivity. They are widely used in drug analysis, metabolomics, and complex mixture profiling, enabling deeper insights into sample composition.

Conclusion: A Future Driven by Precision and Innovation

New analytical chemistry techniques are redefining how we detect, measure, and understand chemical substances. With advances in automation, AI, sustainability, and high-resolution tools, analytical chemistry is becoming faster, smarter, greener, and more powerful supporting breakthroughs in science, industry, and healthcare.

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Scientists Develop New Plastics That Break Down Safely Instead of Polluting

Rutgers scientists have developed plastics that can be programmed to break down at specific rates by drawing on a natural principle. Their approach could provide a meaningful new way to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution.

Yuwei Gu was on a hike in Bear Mountain State Park in New York when an unexpected idea took shape.

As he walked, he noticed plastic bottles scattered along the path and drifting on a nearby lake. The clash between the scenic landscape and the plastic trash caused the Rutgers chemist to pause and reflect.

In nature, many essential substances are made of long chains of repeating units called polymers, such as DNA and RNA, and these natural polymers eventually break apart. Man-made polymers like plastic, however, tend to remain in the environment instead of breaking down. Why is that?

“Biology uses polymers everywhere, such as proteins, DNA, RNA and cellulose, yet nature never faces the kind of long-term accumulation problems we see with synthetic plastics,” said Gu, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.

As he stood in the woods, the answer came to him.

“The difference has to lie in chemistry,” he said.

Gu reasoned that if living systems can create polymers that do their job and then naturally decompose, perhaps plastics designed by people could be reimagined to behave in a similar way. From his training, he knew that many natural polymers contain small chemical groups built into their structure that help loosen chemical bonds when conditions are right, making it easier for those materials to break down.

“I thought, what if we copy that structural trick?” he said. “Could we make human-made plastics behave the same way?”

Borrowing Nature’s Blueprint

The idea worked. In a study published in Nature Chemistry, Gu and a team of Rutgers scientists have shown that by borrowing this principle from nature, they can create plastics that break down under everyday conditions without heat or harsh chemicals.

“We wanted to tackle one of the biggest challenges of modern plastics,” Gu said. “Our goal was to find a new chemical strategy that would allow plastics to degrade naturally under everyday conditions without the need for special treatments.”

A polymer is a substance made of many repeating units linked together, like beads on a string. Plastics are polymers, and so are natural materials such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. DNA and RNA are polymers because they are long chains of smaller units called nucleotides. Proteins are polymers made of amino acids.

Chemical bonds are the “glue” that holds atoms together in molecules. In polymers, these bonds connect each building block to the next. Strong bonds make plastics durable, but they make them difficult to break down. Gu’s research focused on making these bonds easier to break when needed, without weakening the material during use.

The advance does more than make plastics degradable: It makes the process programmable.

A Structural “Pre-Fold”

The key to the discovery was how the researchers arranged components of the plastic’s chemical structure so they were in the perfect position to start breaking down when triggered.

The process can be likened to folding a piece of paper, so it tears easily along the crease. By “pre-folding” the structure, the plastic can break apart thousands of times faster than normal. Even though the plastic is easier to break when activated, its basic chemical makeup stays the same, so it remains strong and useful until the moment the user wants it to degrade.

“Most importantly, we found that the exact spatial arrangement of these neighboring groups dramatically changes how fast the polymer degrades,” Gu said. “By controlling their orientation and positioning, we can engineer the same plastic to break down over days, months, or even years.”

This fine-tuning capability means different products can have lifetimes matched to their purpose. Take-out food packaging might only need to last a day before it disintegrates, while car parts must endure for years. The team demonstrated that breakdown can be built-in or can be switched on or off using ultraviolet light or metal ions, adding another layer of control.

Beyond Environmental Cleanup

The implications go beyond solving the global plastics crisis. Gu said the principle could enable innovations such as timed drug-release capsules and self-erasing coatings.

“This research not only opens the door to more environmentally responsible plastics but also broadens the toolbox for designing smart, responsive polymer-based materials across many fields,” he said.

“Our strategy provides a practical, chemistry-based way to redesign these materials so they can still perform well during use but then break down naturally afterward,” he said.

Early lab tests have shown that the liquid produced by the breakdown is not toxic. But Gu said that more research needs to be done to ensure that is the case.

Looking back, Gu said he was surprised that the idea sparked on a quiet mountain trail actually worked.

“It was a simple thought, to copy nature’s structure to accomplish the same goal,” he said. “But seeing it succeed was incredible.”

Next Steps

Gu and his team are now taking their research in several new directions.

They are studying in detail whether the tiny pieces that plastics break down into are harmful to living things or the environment. This will help make sure the materials are safe for their entire life cycle.

The team also is looking at how their chemical process could work with regular plastics and fit into current manufacturing methods. At the same time, they are testing whether this approach can be used to make capsules that release medicine at controlled times.

There are still a few technical challenges, but Gu said that with more development, along with working with plastic makers who understand the need for sustainable plastics, their chemistry could eventually be used in everyday products.

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Exquisite stereochemical control will allow creation of millions of unique polymers

Chemists can now precisely control the stereochemical sequence of synthetic polymers using similar techniques to those used to create artificial DNA. Growing polymers one monomer at a time could unlock ‘out of the box’ sequences with unique properties, say researchers.

Synthetic polymers are typically non-uniform, varying in both length and structure. Current synthetic methods such as radical or anionic polymerisation also have limited control on how stereocentres are introduced along the polymer backbone. ‘I was a bit frustrated by the tools [chemists] use to build polymers,’ says Jean-François Lutz at the University of Strasbourg in France who led the study.

Lutz and Ranajit Barman have now developed a synthetic method that can create polymers with complete control over the order of monomers, allowing for the relative order of stereocentres to be precisely managed.

The team first synthesised two chiral phosphodiester amide monomers with opposite configuration, which were then used in iterations of solid phase phosphoramidite chemistry to build the polymers stepwise, similar to how artificial DNA and RNA is made.




Twenty different polymers up to 50 monomers long were synthesised using this method, including polymer sequences that were previously difficult to obtain. ‘The polymers that we made are not super interesting [in terms of their properties],’ says Lutz, adding that they were made as a proof of concept that the method worked.

There are currently only three main types of stereochemical polymers: isotactic, meaning all substituents are on the same side of the chain; syndiotactic, an alternating substituent configuration; and heterotactic, where the stereochemistry changes every two monomers, explains Lutz. ‘These terms are historical,’ he says, adding that this new method unlocks the possibility for ‘out of the box’ sequences that have not yet been made. With this method, over one million unique sequences are theoretically possible for polymers with as little as 20 monomers that contain stereocentres.

‘The huge disadvantage of this solid phase synthesis method is that it is low scale due to cost,’ says polymer chemist Róża Szweda at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. She thinks that this may hinder the application of these polymers for material use. Szweda suggests that these polymers may find alternative uses in encoding digital information or helping create artificial enzymes, which only need small amounts of polymer.

In addition to the spectroscopic and mass spectrometry techniques used by the team, Szweda says that advanced 2D-NMR may help further confirm the stereochemistry of these polymers. She adds that this method may subsequently ‘open up a demand for new characterisation techniques’ that can probe chiral sequences more accurately.

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