Taking elemental analysis from micro- to nano-

如今，拿起一本杂志或报纸，几乎不可能不读到一篇关于纳米科学、纳米技术或“材料科学和技术”对社会影响的故事。除了大众媒体，以纳米为前缀的新科学期刊和国际技术会议也在不断推出。此外，美国、欧洲和亚洲的政府、大学和其他研究机构正在纳米相关领域的研究上投入巨资。至于工业，备受尊敬的组织，如美国国家科学基金会和第七届欧洲研究框架估计，未来纳米相关领域的市场将达到(10年内)“一万亿美元”。所有这些都让Nano成为了一个显而易见的机会。不那么明显的是(尤其是在大众媒体中)，纳米技术也代表着一个重大的研究挑战。例如，随着可用于分析的材料(或样品)总量逐渐减少(例如，从微米到纳米)，以及在如此微量的样品中必须测定的杂质浓度不断降低(例如，由于推进纳米科学和技术所需的对更高纯度材料的要求)，在逐渐减少的样品中测量较低浓度的杂质的能力成为一项艰巨的分析挑战。

One can hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper these days without reading a story about nano-science, nano-technology or on the impact of "materials science and technology" on society. In addition to the popular press, new scientific journals and international technical conferences with nano- as a prefix are being launched constantly. Furthermore governments, universities and other research institutions in the US, Europe and Asia are investing heavily on research in nano-related areas. As for industry, highly respected organizations such as the National Science Foundation in the US and the 7th European Research Framework estimate that future markets in nano-related areas will reach (within a decade) "a trillion dollars". All of these make nano an obvious opportunity. What is not made so obvious (especially in the popular press) is that nano also represents a major research challenge. For example, as the total amount of material (or sample) available for analysis becomes progressively smaller (e.g., from micro- to nano-) and as the concentrations of impurities that must be determined in such tiny amounts of sample are continuously lowered (e.g., due to requirements for higher purity materials needed to advance nano-science and -technology), the ability to measure lower concentrations of impurities in progressively smaller amounts of sample becomes a daunting analytical challenge.