Microbial engineering of nanoheterostructures: biological synthesis of a magnetically recoverable palladium nanocatalyst.

Precious metals supported on ferrimagnetic particles have a diverse range of uses in catalysis. However, fabrication using synthetic methods results in potentially high environmental and economic costs. Here we show a novel biotechnological route for the synthesis of a heterogeneous catalyst consisting of reactive palladium nanoparticles arrayed on a nanoscale biomagnetite support.

Determination of relative sensitivity factors during secondary ion sputtering of silicate glasses by Au+, Au2+ and Au3+ ions.

In recent years, Au-cluster ions have been successfully used for organic analysis in secondary ion mass spectrometry. Cluster ions, such as Au(2)(+) and Au(3)(+), can produce secondary ion yield enhancements of up to a factor of 300 for high mass organic molecules with minimal sample damage. In this study, the potential for using Au(+), Au(2)(+) and Au(3)(+) primary ions for the analysis of inorganic samples is investigated by analyzing a range of silicate glass standards.

Improvements in quantification accuracy of inorganic time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometric analysis of silicate materials by using C60 primary ions.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry is a very useful tool for the comprehensive characterization of samples by in situ measurements. A pulsed primary ion beam is used to sputter secondary ions from the surface of a sample and these are then recorded by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The parallel detection of all elements leads to very efficient sample usage allowing the comprehensive analysis of sub-micrometre sized samples.

Interstellar dust laser explorer: a new instrument for elemental and isotopic analysis and imaging of interstellar and interplanetary dust.

We present the performance characteristics of a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer designed for 157 nm laser postionization of sputtered neutrals for high sensitivity elemental and isotopic analyses. The instrument was built with the aim of analyzing rare element abundances in micron to submicron samples such as interstellar grains and cometary dust. Relative sensitivity factors have been determined for secondary ion mass spectrometry which show an exponential dependency against the first ionization potential.