Vol.2 No.1 2009

25/88

Research paper : Expansion of organic reference materials for the analysis of hazardous substances in food and the environment (T. Ihara et al.)−22−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.2 No.1 (2009) foods and environment cannot keep up with the ever-diversifying demands. The quantitative NMR developed in this research project, along with the new, more efficient traceability system, strike at the heart of this problem. They hold the potential for a revolution in the metrological traceability.I believe your approach represents the first use of NMR equipment for quantitative analysis that was originally developed for qualitative analysis. What makes this project a particularly outstanding Type 2 Basic Research is that you returned to the development of elemental technologies to complete the core technology of quantitative NMR.Comment (Hisao Ichijo)Your writing shows clearly how you steadily pursued your program of research and development, by drawing scenarios along the way toward the ambitious goal of switching to a new, more efficient traceability system based on calibration technology.2 Focus on specific descriptionsQuestion and comment (Akira Ono)You advocate a new traceability system using quantitative NMR. Since that alone is a remarkable accomplishment, I think you should describe this system in a more understandable way. Perhaps you could provide a simple description of the freezing point depression method and how it is used to measure the purity of pure substances.Question and comment (Hisao Ichijo)Your paper clearly describes the objectives, how they relate to the demands of society, the elements of technology, and so forth. You determined that the quantitative NMR is appropriate (because it can be applied to a wide range of substances within the uncertainty range the market demands), and that the freezing point depression method is inappropriate (because of crystallization problems). I think your paper will be easier to understand if you explain more fully the research processes by which you came to your conclusions (crystallization is difficult, number of applicable substances is limited, and so on).Answer (Toshihide Ihara)We rewrote the paper to change the rationale behind the comparison with freezing point depression method and to focus more closely on the technical structure of quantitative NMR. The freezing point depression method is a well-established technique. We described it only to demonstrate the appropriateness of quantitative NMR.3 Illustration of research scenarios and integration of elemental technologiesQuestion and comment (Akira Ono)Please add some figures illustrating your research scenarios for Type 2 Basic Research and the integration of elemental technologies, to make your paper more accessible to a general readership.Answer (Toshihide Ihara)We added Fig. 6 to illustrate the process of integrating the elemental technologies to construct the universal calibration technology.4 Selection of primary standardsQuestion and comment (Akira Ono)In the purity determinations of organic compounds in Table 2, benzoic acid, a national RM from NIST of the United States, is used as a primary standard for quantitative NMR. Why didn’t you use one of the national RMs as high-purity organic compounds available from AIST?Answer (Toshihide Ihara)Benzoic acid (NIST SRM 350a), the NIST national RM used in our study, satisfies the conditions 1) to 3) as outlined in section AuthorsToshihide IharaCompleted the doctoral course in engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1994. In 1996, he joined the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, where he worked on the development of RMs for volatile organic compounds and other organic compounds. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States from 2002 to 2003, he pursued development of RMs related to health foods. Moving to BIPM from 2005 to 2006, he worked on purity evaluation techniques for organic compounds. In 2006, he was assigned to his current position at the RMs Systems Division of the National Metrology Institute of Japan of AIST (now the Measurement Standards Systems Division), where he conducts research on standards dissemination systems in the fields of environmental science, foods, and clinical testing. In this paper, he conceived the idea for a new traceability system in chemical metrology and designed specific approaches.Takeshi SaitoJoined the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, where he engaged in research in advancing Spectral Database (SDBS) for Organic Compounds, which is now publicly available on the Internet. He is now in charge of this project. Since joining the Institute, he has made extensive use of NMR in research. In a contract work with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), he worked on a platform for measurement at nanoscale, focusing on the measurement of particle diameter in liquid using NMR. Currently he is working to improve the precision and accuracy of quantitative analytical techniques using NMR. He also works on the general application of quantitative analytical methods. In this paper, he constructed the basic technology for quantitative NMR.Naoki SugimotoAfter completing the doctoral course in Natural Sciences and Technology at Kanazawa University in 1997, he joined the National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) in the same year. There, he worked on setting standards for food additives and other substances. From 2005 to 2006, at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in the United States, he developed methods for analyzing food additives, to promote international standardization. Since 2008, he became the chief of 3rd Section, Division of Environmental Chemistry at NIHS, where he currently works on setting criteria and developing guidelines of analytical methods for chemical substances related to water quality. In this paper, he contributed to the application technologies for quantitative NMR and to the proposal of automation tools to make the technology accessible to the general public.Discussion with Reviewers1 General evaluationComment (Akira Ono)Today the society is facing difficulties as the development of techniques for accurate analysis of harmful organic compounds in

※このページを正しく表示するにはFlashPlayer9以上が必要です