Analytical chemistry articles from across Nature Portfolio

Proton transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometry offers a new analytical tool to measure aqueous concentrations of volatile analytes in real time by the approach of headspace sampling, holding significant promise for advancing understanding of water chlorination chemistry.

Chloramine is one of the most widely used disinfection methods for drinking water, and monitoring the complex reactions is still challenging. The proton transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometry developed here offers great sensitivity in measuring the kinetics of disinfectant decay in water.

This work shows a diagnosis technique that works for multiple cancers and features cost advantage, environmental compliance and user-friendly protocol.

Proton transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometry offers a new analytical tool to measure aqueous concentrations of volatile analytes in real time by the approach of headspace sampling, holding significant promise for advancing understanding of water chlorination chemistry.

We developed a high-throughput, unbiased strategy for the identification of endogenous biomolecular condensates by merging cell volume compression, sucrose density gradient centrifugation and quantitative mass spectrometry. We demonstrated the performance of this strategy by identifying both global condensate proteins and those responding to specific biological processes on a proteome-wide scale.

Physicochemical-sensing electronic skins — combined with artificial intelligence — could be used to develop personalized stress management systems.

Electrocatalysis would not be the same without the rotating disk electrode. Its invention in the mid-twentieth century enabled immense developments, which rendered it a classic technique in electrochemistry. The rotating disk electrode will remain a cornerstone of electrocatalysis with further advances that bridge the gap with real systems.

Cryptic halogenation reactions result in natural products with diverse structural motifs and bioactivities. However, these halogenated species are difficult to detect with current analytical methods because the final products are often not halogenated. An approach to identify products of cryptic halogenation using halide depletion has now been discovered, opening up space for more effective natural product discovery.

Photocatalysis, as a powerful tool for synthetic transformations, has the potential to impact industrial applications. In this commentary, we discuss the challenges and requirements with respect to reproducing published photocatalytic reactions in the (life science) industry.