A closer look at “NPL and UK Universities Unveil Technique to Map Isomers on Surfaces”, exactly as the source publishes it. Researchers from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the University of Surrey, the University of Oxford, the Francis Crick Institute, and IONTOF GmbH have developed a new method to distinguish and map molecules that share the same chemical formula and mass but have different structures and functions. Published on October 19 in Nature Communications, the technique addresses a longstanding challenge in surface analysis: identifying isomers, which are molecules with identical atomic compositions but different arrangements.
Isomers often exhibit vastly different biological activities and material properties, making their precise identification critical in drug development, catalysis, and materials science. The approach combines advanced mass spectrometry imaging with novel data analysis to resolve isomeric species on surfaces at high spatial resolution. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.