News from LabRulezICPMS Library - Week 31, 2025

Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezICPMS Library in the week of 28th July 2025? Check out new documents from the field of spectroscopy/spectrometry and related techniques!

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This week we bring you brochure by Anton Paar and application notes by Agilent Technologies, Metrohm, Shimadzu and Thermo Fisher Scientific!

1. Anton Paar: Solutions from Upstream to Downstream

• Brochure
• Full PDF for download

Anton Paar offers a comprehensive portfolio of high-precision analytical instruments for the petroleum industry, supporting the entire value chain from upstream exploration to downstream refining and testing. Their technologies help optimize key processes such as crude oil extraction, fuel formulation, lubricant development, asphalt quality control, and product certification. With a focus on automation, speed, safety, and compliance, the company enables more efficient, sustainable, and standardized workflows.

In upstream operations, Anton Paar solutions support the evaluation of crude oil properties, aiding decisions on drilling strategy, reservoir yield, and transport readiness. Measurements such as density, viscosity, and rheological behavior under various temperature and pressure conditions help optimize extraction potential and simulate real reservoir conditions. These tools are essential for enhancing recovery rates and minimizing costs.

In refineries, their instruments streamline fuel, lubricant, and asphalt testing through automated and robust measurement platforms. For fuels, Anton Paar enables precise determinations of flash points, distillation ranges, oxidation stability, and cold flow behavior. In lubricant production, their analyzers assess viscosity, consistency, and elemental contamination. Asphalt and bitumen analysis includes penetration, softening point, density, and rheology measurements to ensure long-term durability and regulatory compliance.

Finally, Anton Paar supports midstream logistics and third-party testing labs with tools for product identification, contamination checks, and custody transfer verification. Their automated, digital systems enhance data integrity and traceability while minimizing operator intervention. Whether for on-site process control or independent quality assessment, Anton Paar delivers trusted solutions to maximize performance and reduce risk across the petroleum sector.

2. Agilent Technologies: Accurate Elemental Analysis of Drinking Water per Bureau of Indian Standards by ICP-MS 

Fast, simple, compliant method using an Agilent 7850 ICP-MS and SPS 4 Autosampler

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

The provision of clean and safe drinking water from a dependable, uncontaminated supply is essential for public health. However, many freshwater sources are compromised by pollutants from domestic and industrial wastewater, as well as activities related to agriculture, mining, forestry, and construction. These contaminants can pose significant risks to human health. In recent years, heavy metals and other toxic elements have received significant attention in environmental investigations. In response to growing concerns about food and water safety, regulatory authorities in India, such as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), have established stringent regulations for drinking water analysis to ensure consumer safety.

Laboratories in India use various analytical techniques, including Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), to analyze drinking water. The choice of technique often depends on the number of elements and the concentration range required for the analysis. With the inclusion of uranium in the list of elements specified by BIS regulations, and to ensure preparedness for future updates, ICP-MS is increasingly favored for water analyses. Advantages of ICP-MS include its high sensitivity, low detection limits, wide elemental coverage, and fast, multielement capabilities.

The Agilent 7850 ICP-MS provides drinking water testing laboratories with a comprehensive solution for analyzing multiple elements—including uranium—in drinking water, thereby fulfilling BIS mandatory requirements. A preset method assists the accurate and precise determination of 26 elements, including all 21 elements specified in the standards, in a quick, single run, enabling high sample throughput. 

The 7850 ICP-MS uses Octopole Reaction System (ORS4 ) technology and optimized helium (He) collision mode to remove polyatomic ion interferences in routine applications.2 He mode effectively separates polyatomic ions from analyte ions based on their kinetic energies. As polyatomic ions pass through the ORS4 containing helium gas, they collide more frequently with helium atoms due to their larger collision cross-sections than smaller analyte ions, losing more energy. Upon exiting the cell, the lower-energy polyatomic ions are rejected using kinetic energy discrimination (KED). Meanwhile, analyte ions retain sufficient energy to pass through the KED barrier to the quadrupole and detector. This process removes polyatomic ions from the ion beam, enabling more accurate results for all analytes using a single gas mode.

Results and discussion 

Detection limits 

During method development, data was collected for all 26 elements. The Instrument Detection Limits (IDLs) were calculated from the calibration graphs (3 x standard deviation (SD) of the concentration of calibration blanks), while the dilution-adjusted DLs take account of the dilution factor of 1.25x. The DLs reported in Table 2 are well below the maximum permissible limits (MPLs) specified in the three BIS standards, confirming the suitability of the 7850 ICP-MS for the determination of trace elements in drinking water.

Conclusion 

The Agilent 7850 ICP-MS successfully measured 26 elements in bottled and tap water samples using a single He KED method for all elements. This method adhered to the detection limits and QC requirements defined by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS 10500, BIS 14543, and BIS 13428), including the updated requirements for the measurement of uranium. 

Using the low matrix preset method and autotuning routine within the Agilent ICP-MS MassHunter software streamlined the analytical workflow, minimizing setup time while ensuring accurate and interference-free results. Excellent recoveries of the certified elements in NIST 1643f Trace Elements in Water SRM confirmed the accuracy of the method for those elements. 

The 7850 ICP-MS demonstrated good stability throughout the analysis of 130 solutions, making it a robust tool for quality and safety analysis of drinking water in accordance with Indian government standards.

3. Metrohm: Determining phosphate concentration with Raman spectroscopy

A rapid and reagent-free alternative to chromatography and other
wet chemical methods

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

Phosphates are vital inorganic compounds found extensively in nature and created by industrial processes. They play a crucial role in biological systems and are essential for life. In agriculture, phosphates are a primary component of fertilizers, enhancing soil fertility and increasing crop yields. Industrially, they are used in detergents, food additives, and as corrosion inhibitors. Raman spectroscopy, combined with PLS (Partial Least Squares) modeling, rapidly and quantitatively determines total phosphate concentration. Compared to other techniques like thermometric titration, Raman requires minimal sample preparation and accurately determines phosphate concentration over several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, Raman analysis is accomplished in a few minutes, compared to the longer analysis time required for chromatography and other wet chemical methods.

CURRENT METHODS FOR PHOSPHATE ANALYSIS

Phosphate content is traditionally analyzed by wet chemical colorimetric methods. In colorimetry, a colorforming reagent reacts with phosphates in solution to form a reaction product with a measurable color change. Ion chromatography is also used for quantitative analysis of phosphate ions, especially at low concentrations. While effective, both methods require extensive and time-consuming sample preparation. Ion chromatography is quite sensitive but requires several minutes to complete a determination. Additionally, these methods can generate waste that can damage the environment and are expensive to dispose of properly

PHOSPHATE ANALYSIS WITH RAMAN

Raman spectroscopy can be used for both speciation analysis and quantification using the unique spectral fingerprint of phosphoric acid’s protonation states. It is sensitive and nondestructive, making it ideal for the analysis of fast, in-process measurements. This Application Note demonstrates Raman’s ability to determine phosphate concentration over a wide range. 

RESULTS 

The principal Raman band for phosphate ions, observed between 850 to 950 cm−1 [1], changes with the protonation state of the molecule. Deprotonation occurs as a function of concentration and the phosphate peak ranges from 890 to 897 cm−1, with lower sample concentrations shifting to lower wavenumbers and intensities (Figure 2). This band was used for quantitative analysis of total phosphate ion concentration.

CONCLUSION

Raman spectroscopy offers a reliable and efficient method for quantitative analysis of total phosphates in solution. Its advantages include minimal sample preparation, nondestructive analysis, and high accuracy over a broad concentration range. This technique is particularly valuable for industrial applications where rapid and accurate phosphate determination is crucial for quality control and regulatory compliance.

4. Shimadzu: Determination of 23 Nutritional, Essential and Toxic Elements in Urine by ICP-MS Using Alkaline Dilution

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

User Benefits

• Urine calibrator allows for simple preparation and quick measurement of 23 elements 
• Alkaline media ensures safe determination of iodine and excellent mercury washout capabilities 
• LabSolutions ICPMS allows for high degree of automation by Extended Rinsing function and e.g. control of QC sample or internal standard recovery

The analysis of nutritional, essential, and toxic elements in urine is a critical tool for assessing human health, environmental exposure, and metabolic function. Urine serves as a noninvasive biological matrix that reflects the body's excretion of trace elements, providing valuable insights into nutritional deficiencies, toxic metal exposure, and the status of essential minerals. 

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a highly sensitive and precise analytical technique that enables the detection of trace elements at ultra-low concentrations, making it ideal for comprehensive urine analysis.

Configuration & Measurement Condition 

The ICPMS-2050 LF system configuration is summarized in Table 3. More than 20 elements have been selected for quantification (Table 4). To remove interferences the ICPMS-2050 highly efficient collisionand reaction cellwas applied by adding He or H2. In most cases the trace region is of interest. To improve the precision in the low-end trace region all calibration curves (Fig. 2) are inversely weighted (1/I).

Conclusion 

Sample cycle times (including rinse) of below 3 minutes can be achieved without using complex sample injection techniques. This short time can be achieved by the collision/reaction cell’s extreme low gas switching times (<5 sec.) and features like ProActive Rinsing, which allows to already start rinsing before the actual measurement is finished. This is possible because the remaining sample in the capillary is further injected (measured), before rinse solution reachesthe nebulizer. For routine use, the ICPMS-2050 LF running alkaline media is highly suitable for analyzing nutritional, essential, and toxic elementsin urine samples, even including iodine.

5. Thermo Fisher Scientific: Steel analysis: ARL X900 XRF Spectrometer with universal goniometer

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

Ferrous base materials are very important products in this world because they are the foundation in many applications such as building, automotive, and many manufacturing processes. It is important to accurately analyze these materials to confirm compliance with their chemical specifications and allow for high quality and efficient production. 

Irons 

There are several kinds of irons which are distinguished by their composition and use. They belong to two main categories: 

• Pig iron, also called hot metal, forms the basic material for the manufacture of steel  
• Cast irons, are used to produce semi-manufactured products 

From a metallographic point of view, a distinction can be made between white cast iron, with a cementite structure and grey cast iron which contains free graphite either in the form of laminae or nodules. This makes grey cast iron inhomogeneous and therefore difficult to analyze. Alloy cast irons also exist where alloying elements such as nickel, chromium, manganese, copper, etc. are added to improve hardness, corrosion resistance, or engineering properties.

Instrument parameters and conditions 

The ARL X900 XRF Spectrometer is equipped with the unique proprietary moiré fringe goniometer. Speed, flexibility, and reliability of analysis are guaranteed thanks to the ingenious friction-free positioning system. Up to nine crystals and four collimators can be fitted. With the two detectors (flow proportional and scintillation counters), precise elemental analysis from boron to californium is possible. Additionally, the spectrometer can accommodate up to 24 fixed monochromator channels alongside the goniometer or up to 32 fixed monochromator channels when no goniometer is fitted. 

The ARL X900 XRF Spectrometer can be calibrated using commercially available certified reference material (CRM) standards or well analyzed samples from the user. 

It should be stressed that an XRF spectrometer is a very accurate comparator, but the accuracy of the final analysis is entirely dependent on the quality of the standards used for calibration and on the care and reproducibility of sample preparation which must be identical for CRMs and for routine samples as well.

Conclusion 

Analysis of steels can be performed with ease using the ARL X900 Simultaneous-Sequential XRF Spectrometer. The performance of the moiré fringe goniometer is such that it can be used for analysis of any elements that are not fitted as fixed channels. The analysis on the goniometer is done while the fixed channels are also measuring. In addition, it can be used as a backup in case of failure of any of the fixed channels. 

Appropriate calibrations for steel alloys can be delivered turnkey from Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this case, the commissioning time of the spectrometer is reduced to a minimum. 

The precision is excellent in these matrix types for routine or R&D analysis, especially when an innovative, high counting fixed channel monochromator is used for elements like Ni, Co or Mo. 

Furthermore, operation is made easy through the advanced Thermo Scientific™ OXSAS™ Software that operates with the latest Microsoft Windows® package.