Professor Ian Gilmore
National Physical Laboratory, United Kingdom
Abstract
Since the origins of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), almost nine decades ago, the field has evolved along distinct pathways where a process of natural selection has seen the emergence and decline of techniques as they, in turn, are superseded by new innovations.
Read more
This has resulted in today’s powerful SIMS instruments that are having extraordinary impact in almost every area of materials science and increasingly in the life-sciences [1]. However, independent evolutionary lineages have led to segmentation of the community. Recent advances in instrumentation and advances in fundamental understanding are now beginning to show prospects for evolutionary convergence.
To put this in context, recent developments driven by a fundamental analytical challenge will be discussed. Techniques, like nuclear magnetic resonance, provide high confidence in identification but with limited information on localisation. Whilst techniques like electron microscopy, give high confidence in localisation but low confidence in identification. This has been termed the “molecular uncertainty principle” [2]. In 2017, NPL introduced the OrbiSIMS technology [3] with an objective to simultaneously provide molecular identification and localisation as close to this limit as possible. Since then, the number of OrbiSIMS instruments around the world has increased significantly and the community of users and range of applications has grown. In this presentation, we briefly introduce the OrbiSIMS and use examples of the applications in advanced materials [4] and life-sciences [5] to highlight a convergence of “static SIMS” and “dynamic SIMS” as some of the traditional barriers begin to disappear. In a look to the future, further advances in mass spectrometers are expected, for example multiple reflection Time of Flight analysers, ion mobility and other novel hybrid analysers as well as improved sensitivity using quantum detection.
References
[1] N. P. Lockyer et al. Secondary ion mass spectrometry, Nature reviews, methods primer, 2024
[2] A Ali et al, Single cell metabolism: current and future trends. Metabolomics, 2022. 18 (10):
[3] M K Passarelli et al., The 3D OrbiSIMS-label-free metabolic imaging with subcellular lateral resolution and high mass-resolving power, Nature Methods, 2017. 14 (12): p. 1175-
[4] G F Trindade et al., Direct identification of interfacial degradation in blue OLEDs using nanoscale chemical depth profiling. Nature Communications, 2023. 14 (1): p. 8066.
[5] F Zani et al., The dietary sweetener sucralose is a negative modulator of T cell-mediated responses. Nature, 2023. 615 (7953): p. 705-711.
Bio
Prof. Ian Gilmore is a Senior Fellow at the National Physical Laboratory and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Read more
He has made breakthroughs in high-resolution molecular imaging by mass spectrometry. His innovation of OrbiSIMS technology has had a wide impact across research in biomedicine and novel devices, revolutionising the ability to measure chemistry at surfaces and interfaces. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers and was awarded the IUVSTA Prize and gold medal for Technology (2022), the UKSAF Riviere prize (2013) and the IoP Paterson medal (2004). He is a champion for Research Integrity and leads international standardisation in surface chemical analysis.
Sweden Meetx AB is the conference bureau handling the conference secretariat for the ECASIA 2024 conference.
E-mail: ecasia2024@meetx.se
Phone: +46 31 708 86 90
Registration opens: January 2024
Abstract submission deadline – April 5, 2024
Poster submission deadline – May 20, 2024
Early Bird Registration deadline – April 30, 2024
Conference Dates: 9-14 June 2024
