Mechanoluminescence event yields novel emissions, reactions

"You may, when in the dark frighten simple people only by chewing lumps of sugar, and, in the meantime, keeping your mouth open, which will appear to them as if full of fire," Father Giambattista Beccaria wrote in "A Treatise Upon Artificial Electricity," in 1753. Mechanoluminescence is the light generated when a crystal, such as sugar or quartz, is fractured by grinding, cleaving or via other mechanical means. Sir Francis Bacon wrote about this phenomenon as early as 1605.

Researchers at the University of Illinois report here extensive atomic and molecular spectral emission not previously seen in a mechanoluminescence event. The findings, which appear online this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, also include the first report of gas phase chemical reactions resulting from a mechanoluminescence event.

The Ultrachron

Analyzing Tiny Time Crystals with the Ultrachron: The Ultrachron is an electron microprobe designed to analyze grains of monazite, a mineral that contains rare earth metals cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium. In some monazite crystals, uranium and thorium are also present. Because these latter two elements undergo radioactive decay in a predictable time pattern, their presence turns monazite into a tiny timekeeper.

More information about the Ultrachron and its research applications is available at: Ultra-Chron Project.

Spectroscopy: 2007 Salary Survey

The 2007 Salary Survey published in Spectroscopy Magazine

http://www.spectroscopymag.com/spectroscopy/content/contentDetail.jsp?id=412205

Staff editor Brian Johnson takes a look at this year's salaries and trends in employment for spectroscopists.

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This information comes to you courtesy of spectroscopyonline.com

Catalyst characterization

This article describes work at Shell to characterize catalysists at more realistic conditions of temperature and pressure.

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTech/Volume/2007/06/industry_laboratory_gap.asp

Ionic liquids' Etch a Sketch surprise

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) employs an ion beam (e.g., gallium ions) allowing the chemical analysis of surfaces. When such was directed toward ionic liquids, the result fires electrons out of the liquid's surface, creating a dark pattern that can not only be written and read, but also erased and rewritten. Read all about it here.