News from LabRulezICPMS Library - Week 03, 2026

Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezICPMS Library in the week of 12th January 2026? Check out new documents from the field of spectroscopy/spectrometry and related techniques!

👉 SEARCH THE LARGEST REPOSITORY OF DOCUMENTS ABOUT SPECTROSCOPY/SPECTROMETRY RELATED TECHNIQUES

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This week we bring you application notes by Agilent Technologies, Shimadzu, and Waters Corporation and brochure by Thermo Fisher Scientific!

1. Agilent Technologies: Detecting Spice Adulteration with the Agilent 8700 LDIR Chemical Imaging System

Accelerating adulterant detection in turmeric with IR spectroscopy and imaging 

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

Spices are essential components of culinary practices worldwide, valued for their flavor, aroma, and health benefits. However, the intentional or accidental adulteration of spices with cheaper or foreign substances poses significant risks to both food quality and consumer safety. Adulteration practices often aim to increase product volume, enhance visual appeal, or mimic authentic flavors, compromising the integrity of the final product.¹

Common adulteration practices include substituting genuine plant materials with cheaper or visually similar ones, using inferior plant species or parts, and mixing with fillers such as corn starch, bran, or sawdust. Some products are also adulterated with chemicals to enhance flavor, inorganic substances such as sand, chalk, or red brick powder, or illegal dyes such as Sudan dyes and rhodamine B to intensify color.^1–4 

Current tools for detecting adulteration in herbs and spices face several challenges. Sampling across complex supply chains often lacks consistency, making it difficult to obtain representative samples.⁵ The chemical and physical complexity of sample matrices, combined with natural variation among species and origins, complicates data interpretation.⁵ 

In ground or powdered spices, the original plant structures are lost, making it difficult to visually or morphologically identify adulterants, particularly when they are fine or physically similar to the genuine material.⁶ An Agilent 8700 Laser Direct Infrared (LDIR) chemical imaging system (Figure 1) was used in this study to detect spice adulteration through the integration of infrared spectroscopy and microscopy

Experimental 

Agilent Clarity software: To evaluate the 8700 LDIR's capability in distinguishing genuine spices from common adulterants, a series of pure and adulterated samples were prepared and analyzed using the system's automated Particle Analysis (PA) workflow.

Results and discussion 

Identification of pure spices (turmeric) 

To verify the 8700 LDIR and the user generated library in identifying particles of varying sizes, shapes, and counts, the pure turmeric sample was analyzed as an "unknown". Turmeric sample identification demonstrated high spectral matching accuracy. Within the selected analysis area, 74 particles were detected and 70 particles (94.6%) were matched to the turmeric reference spectra in the custom library. Notably, 64 particles achieved Hit Quality Index (HQI) values exceeding 0.8, indicating strong spectral correlation and high confidence in the identification data (Figure 2).

Conclusion 

This study demonstrates the suitability of the Agilent 8700 LDIR chemical imaging system with Agilent Clarity software as an effective tool for detecting adulteration in ground spices. Using the automated Particle Analysis (PA) workflow, the system quickly and reliably distinguished turmeric from both organic (corn starch) and inorganic (sand) adulterants based on their distinct IR spectral signatures. 

Differentiating between chemically similar spices remains challenging due to overlapping IR profiles. However, the 8700 LDIR system's ability to build custom spectral libraries offers flexibility for targeted authentication, allowing laboratories to adapt the system to their evolving analytical needs. 

A key advantage of the 8700 LDIR method is the speed and simplicity of sample preparation—dry powders can be analyzed directly on low-e slides without solvents or extraction. By combining the high-throughput automated PA workflow with integrated imaging, the 8700 LDIR provides a practical, time-saving solution for routine analysis in food testing laboratories.

2. Shimadzu: Observation of the Automotive Cylindrical Lithium-Ion Battery “4680” Using a Micro-Focus X-ray CT System

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

User Benefits

• The internal structure of the “4680” cylindrical lithium-ion battery for automotive use, which is a market trend, can be observed nondestructively. 
• Electrode placement and bonding condition can be verified, which is useful for product quality inspection.

In recent years, with the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs), the development of high-performance, low-cost automotive batteries has become an urgent priority. Among these, the cylindrical lithium-ion battery “4680” has attracted particular attention. Compared with the conventional “2170,” the “4680” is larger, and its energy density per cell is increased, thereby extending vehicle range. In addition, the adoption of a tab-less structure reduces internal resistance, improving charge/discharge efficiency and thermal management performance, while simplification of the manufacturing process is expected to reduce cost. Owing to these characteristics, the “4680” is drawing attention across both industry and academia as a core technology for next-generation EVs. Meanwhile, lithium-ion batteries are always subject to concerns about the risk of ignition and explosion due to internal short circuits or foreign matter inclusion. Because X-ray CT enables nondestructive testing (NDT) with three-dimensional visualization of internal structures, it is possible to detect fine defects such as electrode misalignment, separator damage, and foreign matter inclusion. 

This article introduces a case study in which the cylindrical lithium-ion battery “4680” for automotive applications was observed using the microfocus X-ray CT system inspeXio 7000 (Fig. 1).

Conclusion

We presented a case study of imaging the cylindrical lithium-ion battery “4680” using a microfocus X-ray CT system. By nondestructively visualizing its three-dimensional structure, it is possible to obtain important information on the battery’s internal structure, such as the arrangement of electrodes and their bonding state. Thus, X-ray CT is shown to be a powerful tool that contributesto the advancement of battery technology.

3. Thermo Fisher Scientific: MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer

Enabling accurate, real-time results for process monitoring in hazardous locations

• Brochure
• Full PDF for download

The Thermo Scientific™ MarqMetrix™ All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer is a compact, portable spectrometer designed for fast deployment and ease of use. Built for industries where rapid time-to-results is critical, it is designed to be intrinsically and inherently safe for operation within hazardous locations, in such applications as: 

• Midstream and downstream oil & gas operations 
• Chemical and polymer applications 
• Pharmaceutical development and manufacturing

The MarqMetrix All-In-One X Analyzer offers multiple operational advantages: 

• Analysis without sample preparation, delivering Raman spectral results in real time 
• Easy setup and deployment by non-spectroscopists 
• Intrinsically and inherently safe optical power to robust probes, which can be deployed in hazardous locations: up to ATEX Zone 0 (Europe & Middle East), IECEx (Asia), and Class 1 Div 1 (North America) 
• Nondestructive workflows to protect precious samples 
• A small footprint for convenient deployment 
• Factory calibration for hardware stability and portability 

The MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer is designed for out-of-the-box use, enabling you to be ready in less than 15 minutes to collect highly accurate Raman measurements. Pack this analyzer in a protective case and take it to the point of need; its factory calibration ensures continuous and precise analysis on the go. Easily integrate the MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer into your existing process without the need for costly technical expertise. Once implemented, the analyzer enables operators in hazardous locations to make faster, safer, and smarter decisions by delivering real-time compositional insights directly on site.

4. Waters Corporation: Residual Dynabeads Detection with Aura+

• Application note
• Full PDF for download

Autologous cell therapies have seen explosive growth as evidenced by the recent landmark FDA approvals of two CAR-T cell therapies, Yescarta® and Kymriah®. ¹ Dynabeads™ are commonly used in cell therapy manufacturing process to expand and activate CAR-T cells.² CD3/CD28 Dynabeads specifically are one of the leading approved GMP expression beads for T cell therapies and are key to achieving the potency required of these novel medicines. Dynabeads are also efficiently removed from the final product to ensure final purity. However, residual CD3/CD28 beads present a significant risk patients’ safety and therefore are generally kept below a widely accepted but not yet regulatory controlled limit of 100 residual beads per 3,000,000 cells.^3–4 

Residual bead analysis is currently performed with manual hemocytometry that uses light microscopy and manual counting. However, manual hemocytometry is prone to human error, which leads to significant bead undercounting because it is incredibly difficult to find and differentiate between Dynabeads and cells in a sample, making residual bead counting one of the most challenging cell therapy lot release assays. Other traditional cell and subvisible analysis tools, including flow cytometers, also undercount beads and cannot differentiate residual Dynabeads from cells and other subvisible particles. 

In this technical note, we show step-by-step how Aura CL and Aura+ enable fast, accurate, sensitive, and specific residual Dynabead detection in a concentrated cell therapy product. Powered by backgrounded membrane imaging (BMI) to characterize the entire cell therapy particle population and side illumination membrane imaging (SIMI) to specifically detect Dynabeads, Aura® CL and Aura®+ are the first and only tailored solutions to find and count these hard to detect contaminants.

Conclusion 

Analysis of the cell therapy sample on Aura CL or Aura+ begins with the BMI well image, where sharp contrast, high resolution optics provide the landscape to count and size all the particles in your cell therapy product. SIMI imaging, which is run at the same time as BMI, enables the differentiation of biologic vs. non-biologic particles which is essential to this application. Figures 2 and 3 capture how BMI detects all particles present in a cell therapy sample, while SIMI mode selects for particles of higher refractive index contrast. In BMI mode, cells, Dynabeads, and mixtures of the two were all easily visible. However, in SIMI mode, only the residual Dynabeads were detected both in the standard high-throughput 4x mode and in the 10x high magnification mode. This is essential for specific detection of residual Dynabeads given their low abundance in a highly concentrated cell sample as shown in Figure 4. We determined that the limit of quantitation (LOQ) of Dynabeads is <1 bead/well (or 18 beads/mL of sample), well below the hemacytometer residual bead detection rate of 1 bead per 10,000 cells. Additionally, the bead counts in our dilution series exhibited a linear relationship, measuring an R2 of 0.98. Using Aura CL or Aura+ for residual Dynabead detection provides greater accuracy and higher-throughput in counting compared to the cumbersome and error prone currently used methods. Resolving false positive counts can be easily rectified by measuring the particles at higher magnification, where single Dynabeads identity can be confirmed by size. Aura CL and Aura+ deliver the only automated way of measuring single Dynabeads in concentrated cell therapy solutions, while also offering built in orthogonal confirmation through various objectives and light sources.