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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Scientists crack the explosive secret of how diamonds reach the surface

Diamonds hitch a ride to the surface through explosive kimberlite eruptions, powered by volatile-rich magmas. New simulations show that carbon dioxide and water are the secret ingredients that make these eruptions possible.



If you've ever held or beheld a diamond, there's a good chance it came from a kimberlite. Over 70% of the world's diamonds are mined from these unique volcanic structures. Yet despite decades of study, scientists are still working to understand how exactly kimberlites erupt from deep in Earth's mantle to the surface.

Kimberlites -- carrot-shaped volcanic pipes that erupt from mantle depths greater than 150 km have long fascinated geologists as windows into the deep Earth. Their mantle-derived melt ascends rapidly through the mantle and crust, with some estimates suggesting ascent rates of up to 80 miles per hour before kimberlites erupt violently at the surface. Along the way, the magma captures xenoliths and xenocrysts, fragments of the rocks encountered on its path.

"They're very interesting and still very enigmatic rocks," despite being well-studied, says Ana Anzulović, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo's Centre for Planetary Habitability.

In a study published this month in the journal Geology, Anzulović and colleagues from the University of Oslo have taken a major step toward solving the puzzle. By modelling how volatile compounds like carbon dioxide and water influence the buoyancy of proto-kimberlite melt relative to surrounding materials, they quantified for the first time what it takes to erupt a kimberlite.

Diamonds make it to the surface in kimberlites because their rapid ascent prevents them from reverting to graphite, which is more stable at shallow pressures and temperatures. But the composition of the kimberlite's original melt and how it rises so fast has remained mysterious.

"They start off as something that we cannot measure directly," says Anzulović. "So we don't know what a proto-kimberlite, or parental, melt would be like. We know approximately but everything we know basically comes from the very altered rocks that get emplaced."

To constrain the composition of these parental melts, the team focused on the Jericho kimberlite, which erupted into the Slave craton of far northwest Canada. Using chemical modelling, they tested different original mixtures of carbon dioxide and water.

"Our idea was, well, let's try to create a chemical model of a kimberlite, then vary CO2 and H2O," says Anzulović. "Think of it as trying to sample a kimberlite as it ascends at different pressure and temperature points."

The researchers used molecular dynamics software to simulate atomic forces and track how atoms in a kimberlite melt move under varying depths. From these calculations, they determined the density of the melt at different conditions and whether it remained buoyant enough to rise.

"The most important takeaway from this study is that we managed to constrain the amount of CO2 that you need in the Jericho kimberlite to successfully ascend through the Slave craton," Anzulović says. "Our most volatile-rich composition can carry up to 44% of mantle peridotite, for example, to the surface, which is really an impressive number for such a low viscosity melt."

The study also shows how volatiles play distinct roles. Water increases diffusivity, keeping the melt fluid and mobile. Carbon dioxide helps structure the melt at high pressures but, near the surface, it degasses and drives the eruption upward. For the first time, researchers demonstrated that the Jericho kimberlite needs at least 8.2% CO2 to erupt; without it, diamonds would remain locked in the mantle.

"I was actually pretty surprised that I can take such a small scale system and actually observe, 'Okay, if I don't put any carbon in, this melt will be denser than the craton, so this will not erupt,'" says Anzulović. "It's great that modeling kimberlite chemistry can have implications for such a large-scale process."

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New Algorithm Reveals the Secret Chemistry Behind Cheaper, Cleaner Propylene

Scientists have mapped the atomic interactions that make nanoscale catalysts so effective at converting propane into propylene.

The discovery highlights a stabilizing oxide pattern that could guide improved industrial production methods.

Propane’s Transformation Into Propylene

Many everyday goods, including plastic squeeze bottles and outdoor furniture, depend on a chemical process that converts propane into propylene. A 2021 report in Science showed that chemists could use tandem nanoscale catalysts to merge several stages of this conversion into a single reaction a method that raises efficiency and reduces costs for manufacturers. However, the precise atomic activity behind this combined process was still unknown, which made it difficult to extend the method to other major industrial reactions.

Algorithms Uncover Atomic-Level Details

Scientists at the University of Rochester created algorithms that highlight the atomic-scale features guiding the reaction when nanoscale catalysts convert propane into propylene. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describe the complex interplay of materials that shift between multiple states during the reaction.

“There are so many different possibilities of what’s happening at the catalytic active sites, so we need an algorithmic approach to very easily yet logically screen through the large amount of possibilities that exist and focus on the most important ones,” says Siddharth Deshpande, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering. “We refined our algorithms and used them to do a very detailed analysis of the metallic phase and oxide phase driving this very complex reaction.”

Oxide Behavior and Catalyst Stability

During their investigation, Deshpande and chemical engineering PhD student Snehitha Srirangam uncovered unexpected patterns. They observed that the oxide in the reaction tended to form around defective metal sites in a highly selective way, a feature that played a crucial role in keeping the catalyst stable.

Even though the oxide can appear in several chemical compositions, it consistently remained positioned around those defective metal sites.

Expanding the Approach to Other Industrial Reactions

Deshpande says this deeper understanding, along with the team’s algorithmic tools, can help scientists examine the atomic structures of other important reactions, including methanol synthesis that supports products ranging from paints to fuel cells. He believes that over time, this knowledge could guide companies toward more efficient strategies for producing propylene and other industrial chemicals so they can move away from the trial-and-error methods commonly used today.

“Our approach is very general and can open the doors to understand many of these processes that have remained an enigma for decades,” says Deshpande. “We know these processes work, and we produce tons of these chemicals, but we have much to learn about why exactly they’re working.”

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Scientists Create 7 Remarkable New Ceramic Materials by Simply Removing Oxygen

Penn State scientists discovered seven new ceramics by simply removing oxygen opening a path to materials once beyond reach.

Sometimes, less truly is more. By removing oxygen during the synthesis process, a team of materials scientists at Penn State successfully created seven new high-entropy oxides (HEOs) a class of ceramics made from five or more metals that show promise for use in energy storage, electronics, and protective coatings.

During their experiments, the researchers also established a framework for designing future materials based on thermodynamic principles. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.

“By carefully removing oxygen from the atmosphere of the tube furnace during synthesis, we stabilized two metals, iron and manganese, into the ceramics that would not otherwise stabilize in the ambient atmosphere,” said corresponding and first author Saeed Almishal, research professor at Penn State working under Jon-Paul Maria, Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science.

Machine learning expands material possibilities

Almishal first succeeded in stabilizing a manganese- and iron-containing compound by precisely controlling oxygen levels in a material he called J52, composed of magnesium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and iron. Building on this, he used newly developed machine learning tools an artificial intelligence technique capable of screening thousands of possible material combinations within seconds to identify six additional metal combinations capable of forming stable HEOs.

With the assistance of a team of undergraduate students who processed, fabricated, and characterized the samples, Almishal produced bulk ceramic pellets of all seven novel, stable, and potentially functional HEO compositions. The students’ work was supported by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Penn State’s Center for Nanoscale Science, a U.S. National Science Foundation–funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.

Thermodynamic principles behind stabilization

“In a single step, we stabilized all seven compositions that are possible given our current framework,” Almishal said. “Although this was previously treated this as a complex problem in the field of HEOs, the solution was simple in the end. With a careful understanding of the fundamentals of material and ceramic synthesis science and particularly the principles of thermodynamics we found the answer.”

Stabilizing these materials, Almishal explained, involves “coercing” the manganese and iron atoms to stay in the 2+ oxidation state, also known as the rock salt structure, where each atom bonds with only two oxygen atoms. Under normal oxygen levels, the materials would fail to stabilize because the manganese and iron atoms would keep binding with additional oxygen, shifting to a higher oxidation state. By reducing the amount of oxygen in the tube furnace, the researchers restricted how much oxygen the material could absorb, allowing it to form and remain in the stable rock salt structure.

“The main rule we followed in synthesizing these materials is the role that oxygen plays in stabilizing such ceramic materials,” Almishal said.

Confirming results and future directions

To make sure that manganese and iron in each new material were stable in the target oxidation state, Almishal collaborated with researchers from Virginia Tech. They performed an advanced imaging technique to measure how X-rays are absorbed by the atoms in the material. By analyzing the resulting data, researchers could determine the oxidation state of specific elements and confirm the stability of manganese and iron in the new materials.

In the next phase of research, the researchers said they will test all seven new materials for their magnetism. They also aim to apply their thermodynamic framework for controlling oxygen during synthesis to other material classes currently considered unstable and challenging to synthesize.

“This paper, which has already been accessed online thousands of times, seems to resonate with researchers because of its simplicity,” Almishal said. “Although we focus on rock salt HEOs, our methods provide a broad adaptable framework for enabling uncharted, promising chemically disordered complex oxides.”

As a result of his extensive lab work on the new materials, co-author and undergraduate materials science and engineering major Matthew Furst was invited to present the research at the American Ceramic Society’s (ACerS) Annual Meeting with Materials Science and Technology 2025 an honor usually reserved for faculty or senior graduate students which took place Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 in Columbus, Ohio.

“I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have had on this project and to be involved in every step of the research and publication process,” Furst said. “Being able to present this material to a broad audience as an invited talk reflects my involvement and the excellent guidance I have received from my mentors. It means a lot to me to develop important communication skills as an undergraduate student, and I look forward to pushing myself further in the future!”

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