NEWS
Explosives Sniffer Developed A compact device that can detect minute traces of vapor from concealed explosives has been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). T h e mass spectrome ter-based device can detect and identify vapors from explo sives such as trinitrotoluene ( T N T ) and nitroglycerine in less than a second. The device could be used to scan per sons entering airport terminals, nuclear power plants, de fense installations, or other sensitive locations, providing greater security against potential terrorist acts. "While dogs can be trained to detect explosives in the same p p b range as this detector," explained Gary L. Glish, one of the device's developers, "they are unable to distin guish vapors from different classes of explosives. Further more, our device operates continuously and offers much higher reliability than a trained dog." When the device is operating, air samples are introduced into the ion source of a t a n d e m mass spectrometer with quadrupole and time-of-flight analyzers. A collision cham ber is located between the two analyzers. Organic com pounds indicative of explosives are identified by molecular weight and fragmentation patterns. P a t e n t applications are being made for the ion source of the new instrument. T h e sniffer was developed by Glish and colleagues Scott A. McLuckey and Henry S. McKown in the ORNL Analyti cal Chemistry Division. Transfer of the technology to in dustry will be considered after further development efforts. ORNL is operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems for the U.S. Department of Energy.
For Your Information Varian Associates and Siemens have signed a letter of in tent to form and jointly operate a nuclear magnetic reso nance imaging business in Fremont, Calif. T h e joint ven ture will produce and market nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging spectroscopy systems t h a t are smaller in scale than clinical magnetic resonance imagers. T h e instru ments resulting from the new venture will be used for small animal research, medical research, and materials testing. Peter Llewellyn, manager of Varian's N M R imaging spec troscopy operation, is president of t h e new organization. H e w l e t t - P a c k a r d has granted a n o n e x c l u s i v e license to J&W Scientific to use H P technology in the manufac ture of high-resolution silica capillary columns for gas chro matography. J&W Scientific is a division of Curtin Matheson Scientific, a subsidiary of Fisons PLC (Ipswitch, England). Preliminary results of research being conducted at the Cen ter for Process Analytical Chemistry (CPAC) a t the Uni versity of Washington indicate that near-infrared spec troscopy in conjunction w i t h fiber-optic probes can be used to predict the octane number, Reid vapor pressure, API density, distillation point, and bromine number of gas oline samples. T h e near-IR test for all these parameters re quires 1 mL of sample and takes 20 s to complete, as com
pared with t h e 1 pint of sample and 20 min of testing time required by the conventional A S T M test for octane num ber alone. According to CPAC's J a m e s Callis, "Analytical chemistry has not had as much influence as it should in quality assurance because analytical chemists have not de veloped means for obtaining data t h a t can be directly in terpreted in terms of quality factors." An overpressured layer c h r o m a t o g r a p h y (OPLC) in strument was recently purchased for David Nurok's group in the Department of Chemistry of Indiana UniversityP u r d u e University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) with funds pro vided by Eli Lilly & Company and Lilly Industrial Coat ings. According to I U P U I , the acquisition makes the school one of only four U.S. facilities t h a t currently own Chrompres 25 instruments, which are manufactured in Hungary and marketed by Newman-Howells Associates of Great Britain. OPLC (also called forced-flow thin-layer chromatography), invented in Hungary in 1977, is a tech nique in which separation takes place on a thin silica layer t h a t is covered by a pressurized Teflon sheet. P u m p i n g sol vent through the silica layer results in more rapid and effi cient separations than are possible by conventional thinlayer chromatography. Heyden & Son Ltd., which sold its entire publishing pro gram to Wiley four years ago and has been under a contrac tual limitation against participation in t h e market, has now emerged with a new journal, Biomedical Chromatogra phy (£112 or $165, postpaid). T h e bimonthly publication concentrates on applications of chromatography and allied techniques in the biological and medical sciences, including biological analyses, purifications of biologically important compounds, pharmacokinetics, and sequencing methods. T h e editors-in-chief are Chang Kee Lim and Elizabeth Hounsell of the U.K. Medical Research Council, London. Sample copies οι Biomedical Chromatography and instruc tions for authors wishing to submit papers are available from Heyden & Son Ltd., Spectrum House, Hillview Gar dens, London NW4 2JQ, U.K. (01-203-5171). N e w reports on "Chromatography I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n Markets" ( # A182, $995) and "Industrial R e c o r d e r Markets" ( # A 0 8 6 , $995) have been issued by M a r k e t In telligence Research Company (4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303; 415-856-8200). T h e chromatography study concludes t h a t all segments of this m a r k e t will grow and t h a t the ion chromatography and high-performance thin-layer chromatography equipment markets will grow at an especially rapid (15-20%) rate through 1993. T h e re corder report indicates t h a t this m a r k e t is m a t u r e , with few new entrants, long product life cycles, and stable prices. Recorder sales are growing at a seven percent annual rate, and gross revenues should rise to about $1 billion by 1992, up from a current market size of about $684 million. A n a l y t i c h e m International Inc. has completed c o n struction on an addition to its Harbor City, Calif., head quarters building. Included are new laboratories for quality assurance, H P L C manufacturing, and analytical research. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 59, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 1987 · 565 A
