In recent years, the spotlight on the safety of baby food has intensified, driven by growing concerns about toxic heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. These elements, even in low concentrations, pose significant health risks to infants and toddlers, whose developing bodies are particularly vulnerable. As regulatory standards tighten, advanced analytical techniques such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) have emerged as crucial tools in ensuring baby food meets stringent safety and nutritional benchmarks.<h4>The importance of monitoring heavy metals in baby food</h4>Heavy metals can make their way into baby food through environmental contamination, agricultural practices, or industrial processes. For instance:<ul><li>Lead can leach from soil into crops.</li><li>Arsenic is often present in rice and rice-based products due to its natural occurrence in water and soil.</li><li>Mercury can accumulate in fish and seafood.</li><li>Cadmium is introduced via contaminated soil or fertilizers.</li></ul>Even trace amounts of these metals can lead to neurological damage, developmental delays, and other long-term health issues. Regulatory bodies like the FDA and the European Union have established maximum permissible levels for these toxic elements. For example, the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 in the U.S. mandates maximum limits such as 10 µg/kg for inorganic arsenic and 5 µg/kg for lead in baby food products.<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Ensuring_Baby_Food_Safety_Tackling_Toxic_Metals_with_Advanced_Technology_275fac6f68.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: Ensuring Baby Food Safety - Tackling Toxic Metals with Advanced Technology" srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Ensuring_Baby_Food_Safety_Tackling_Toxic_Metals_with_Advanced_Technology_275fac6f68.jpg 239w," sizes="100vw" width="1536" height="1006"><h4>The role of ICP-MS in baby food safety</h4>To comply with these regulations, manufacturers require robust analytical methods that offer high sensitivity, precision, and reproducibility. ICP-MS, particularly when paired with advanced sample preparation techniques, has become the gold standard for detecting and quantifying both toxic and essential trace elements in baby food.<h4>A streamlined workflow</h4>A recent study showcased a comprehensive workflow using the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/products/1488">Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ MTX ICP-MS</a> system:<ul><li>Sample preparation: Baby food samples, ranging from dry powders to high-fat and high-moisture items, were processed using microwave-assisted acid digestion. This method ensures uniform preparation and minimizes manual handling.</li><li>Automated dilution: The system’s argon gas dilution (AGD) capability allowed for a consistent five-fold dilution of all samples, accommodating a wide variety of matrices without compromising detection sensitivity.</li><li>Interference management: By leveraging triple quadrupole modes with reactive gases, the ICP-MS effectively suppressed polyatomic and isobaric interferences, ensuring accurate results even for challenging elements like arsenic and mercury.</li><li>Quality control: Calibration curves and internal standard checks maintained accuracy throughout the analysis, with all results aligning within regulatory limits.</li></ul><h4>Key findings</h4>The study analyzed six baby food products, including fruit purees, cereal, yogurt, and fish-based meals. While most samples adhered to safety standards, certain findings highlighted areas for further attention:<ul><li>Arsenic: Elevated levels were detected in salmon-based purees, attributed to organic arsenic compounds naturally present in fish.</li><li>Cadmium and lead: Slightly elevated levels in carrot-based products underscore the need for rigorous soil testing and monitoring.</li></ul><h4>Benefits of advanced ICP-MS analysis</h4>Beyond regulatory compliance, ICP-MS offers additional advantages:<ul><li>Nutritional assessment: Simultaneous analysis of essential nutrients like calcium, iron, and zinc ensures baby food supports healthy growth.</li><li>Efficiency and productivity: The automated workflow minimizes operator intervention, making it suitable for high-throughput laboratories.</li><li>Reliability: Consistent results across diverse sample types build confidence in food safety and quality.</li></ul><h4>Conclusion</h4>Ensuring the safety of baby food is not just a regulatory requirement—it’s a responsibility to protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society. By harnessing the power of ICP-MS, manufacturers can confidently address both safety concerns and nutritional needs, delivering products that parents can trust. As technology continues to evolve, such advancements promise a future where baby food safety is guaranteed, one analysis at a time.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thermofisher.com/cz/en/home/industrial/mass-spectrometry/inductively-coupled-plasma-mass-spectrometry-icp-ms/quadrupole-icp-ms-systems.html">Explore more</a>: Learn how the Thermo Scientific iCAP MTX ICP-MS system is setting new standards in trace metals analysis for food safety.

Ensuring Baby Food Safety: Tackling Toxic Metals with Advanced Technology

Reactivity and fluxes of antimony in a macrotidal estuarine salinity gradient: Insights from single and triple quadrupole ICP-MS performances

News from LabRulezICPMS Library - Week 16, 2025

As countries across the world accelerate their efforts to move away from fossil fuels, lithium-ion batteries have rapidly become established as a key component in the drive to greener energy alternatives. But lithium is only part of the story. In this blog post, I’ll review the role that lithium and other elements play in battery technology, discuss how these elements can be quantified and assess what potential options there are for future developments in this area.<h3>Lithium ion batteries – their promise and their problems</h3>Lithium ion battery cathodes are typically made from a mixed metal oxide base to which lithium is added and, usually, nickel, cobalt and manganese oxides are used for this purpose. To maintain optimum performance and to slow degradation of cathode materials over multiple charging and discharging cycles as much as possible, these materials need to be highly purified. In particular, they must be free of metal impurities (particularly iron and vanadium) and sulphur, as these elements disrupt battery performance and accelerate degradation processes. Lithium ion batteries have become a central focus for power generation for electric vehicles and portable devices because they offer high-power storage capacity for their size and good charge/discharge cycling stability over a relatively long time period. However, there are safety concerns surrounding lithium ion batteries, as they can spontaneously ignite and subsequently explode as a result of overheating.This overheating can be caused by factors such as electrical shorting, rapid discharge, overcharging or mechanical damage, so considerable research and development in recent years has been focused on making them as safe as possible. Safety is not the only problem for batteries based on lithium. Although the price of lithium batteries has decreased significantly (by almost 90% between 2010 and 2020, according to some estimates1), since January this year, the price of lithium raw materials (primarily lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide) has been rising steadily. Lithium is not a limitless resource on Earth — it’s present at levels of only between 0.002 – 0.006 wt% in the Earth’s crust — so as demand ramps up, supply will diminish and costs will rise. The cost is not only a financial one. Mining activities will need to sharply increase if dependence on lithium is maintained, which will significantly impact the environment in areas where lithium deposits are rich enough for mining to be viable. This, however, also means that recycling and reprocessing of spent batteries will become an essential part of the lithium battery cycle.<h3>Are there alternative metal ion technologies to lithium?</h3>In the initial stages of lithium ion battery research in the 1970s and early 1980s, the potential of sodium ion batteries was also investigated.2 Sodium has the considerable benefit of being much more widely available than lithium — it’s the seventh most abundant element, with an average concentration of 2.27% by weight in the Earth’s crust — and so cheaper and more viable to extract from almost anywhere. However, it soon became clear at the time that the power density and charge/discharge cycling stability of sodium ion batteries was not as good, in part because the larger ionic radius of sodium means that the graphite anodes that are efficiently used with lithium ion batteries cannot be used with sodium batteries. As a result, sodium battery research languished for many years until, in the early 2010s, interest in this area resurged because of increasing battery demand and the discovery that hard carbon3 provided better anode performance with sodium ions. There is still a long way to go with sodium ion battery development, but promising advances are happening now. In June 2020, researchers from Washington State University (WSU) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) announced that they had developed a viable sodium ion battery4, and Stanford University is spearheading research into new sodium ion-based battery materials.5<h3>Measuring lithium and other metals involved in battery technology</h3>It’s clear that accurate determination and quantification of both the cathode metal oxide elements and trace impurities in the cathode material are of key importance for advancing and scaling up battery production, research and development. The techniques that are available for this analysis include <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/products?category=251&amp;manufacturerItems=3">inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/products?category=232&amp;manufacturerItems=3">inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)</a>, and recently, the applications team at Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Bremen, Germany, facility have produced an application note on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/an_73872_icp_oes_elements_lithium_batteries_an73872_en_691a4c3f8a.pdf">analysis of trace elements in lithium batteries</a> using the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/BRE0020758#/BRE0020758">Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ PRO XP ICP-OES</a>. If you’d like to learn more about how these and other technologies that can support battery technology advancements, take a look at our batteries resources page <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thermofisher.com/batteries">here</a>.

Is Battery Technology Just All About Lithium?

Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezICPMS Library in the week of 21st April 2025? Check out new documents from the field of spectroscopy/spectrometry and related techniques!<blockquote>👉 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library">SEARCH THE LARGEST REPOSITORY OF DOCUMENTS ABOUT SPECTROSCOPY/SPECTROMETRY RELATED TECHNIQUES</a></blockquote><blockquote>👉 Need info about different analytical techniques? Peek into <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/library">LabRulezLCMS</a> or <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://gcms.labrulez.com/library">LabRulezGCMS</a> libraries.</blockquote>This week we bring you application notes by Agilent Technologies and Shimadzu and other document by Thermo Fisher Scientific!<h3>1. Agilent Technologies: Determination of Elements in a Solid Sulfide Electrolyte using ICP-OES</h3>Analysis of next generation solid-state lithium-ion battery electrolyte chemicals by Agilent <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library?mainauthorItems=10&amp;search=5800+VDV+ICP-OES">5800 VDV ICP-OES</a><ul><li>Application note</li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/an_solid_sulfide_electrolyte_5800_icp_oes_5994_8287en_agilent_1_e13d65c6a8.pdf">Full PDF for download</a></li></ul>The rapid expansion of renewable energy sources and electric mobility usage is driving interest in the next generation of energy storage technologies. Currently, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the leading storage method that is used across a wide range of applications. However, LIBs are limited by raw material availability and high costs, as well as concerns around safety. Solid-state batteries are emerging as an alternative energy storage technology. These batteries use a solid superionic material as the electrolyte instead of traditional liquid-phase electrolytes. This material, which transmits ions through a solid crystalline lattice, has the potential for high energy density compared to conventional batteries, as well as increased safety and operating temperatures.1 Li10GeP2 S12 (LGPS) is one such inorganic solid electrolyte that is currently being investigated due to its high ionic conductivity. As with traditional battery electrolytes, the quality and purity of the solid electrolyte must be high to effectively facilitate ion transport. The presence of elemental contaminants could potentially affect the regular lattice structures of the electrolyte and impact battery longevity, lifespan, and safety.2,3&nbsp;Spectroscopic techniques like Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) are widely used to determine elemental contaminants in complex materials. The technique is especially useful for the simultaneous measurement of trace elements in samples such as battery electrolytes, due to its speed, sensitivity, and tolerance to high total dissolved solids (TDS).&nbsp;Both the Agilent <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library?mainauthorItems=10&amp;search=5800+VDV+ICP-OES">5800 Vertical Dual View</a> (VDV) and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library?mainauthorItems=10&amp;search=5900+SVDV+ICP-OES+">5900 Synchronous Vertical Dual View (SVDV) ICP-OES </a>instruments have been adopted across the LIB value chain to address the varied analytical needs of the industry.4 Both instruments are ideal for labs dealing with novel materials, high numbers of samples, or aiming to make efficiency gains. In the absence of comparative methods for the analysis of LGPS, we focused on the development, optimization, and validation of the method to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the results. To support this process, we utilized the following hardware and software usability features to support the workflow throughout the study:&nbsp;<ul><li>IntelliQuant Screening: The fast scan software feature was used to initially screen LGPS samples for elemental content across the entire wavelength range. The semiquantitative data provided valuable information on the identity of elements in the sample, enabled selection of appropriate analyte wavelengths, and helped establish suitable calibration ranges.&nbsp;</li><li>Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF): This software feature alerts the analyst when maintenance is required, based on a series of sensors, counters, and trackers. By maintaining optimum instrument operating conditions, unnecessary downtime is reduced, increasing the productivity of the instrument.&nbsp;</li><li>Intelligent Rinse: A feature that adjusts washout times based on the actual time it takes to wash out each element in the sample. This intelligent rinsing routine ensures that there are no carryover issues for problematic or high concentration elements.&nbsp;</li></ul>In this study, the 5800 VDV ICP-OES with an Agilent SPS 4 autosampler was used to determine 29 elements in battery grade LGPS electrolyte powder following microwave digestion. The elements included aluminum, arsenic, boron, barium, beryllium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, gallium, germanium, potassium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, sodium, nickel, phosphorus, lead, sulfur, antimony, silicon, strontium, titanium, vanadium, and zinc.<h4>Results and discussion</h4><h5>Calibration and linearity&nbsp;</h5>All 29 analytes were quantified using an external standard calibration method, with background correction performed by the instrument’s default and automatic Fitted Background Correction (FBC) routine. The FBC software corrects simple and complex background peaks automatically, requiring no input from the analyst. The results of the linear regression analysis of each analyte show excellent linearity across the calibration range with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.99900 to 1.00000 (Table 3). A representative spectrum and calibration curve for Cr 267.716 nm are shown in Figure 7.<h5>Long-term stability&nbsp;</h5>To assess the stability of the 5800 VDV ICP-OES, 241 solutions were measured over eight hours without recalibration. The solutions consisted of 10 LGPS solutions and a QC block, which contained a rinse, Continuing Calibration Blank (CCB), and Continuing Calibration Verification (CCV) solutions. The CCV solution contained 0.250 mg/L of all analytes except Li, Ge, P and S, which were present at 250 mg/L. The recovery of the CCV was then plotted, as shown in Figure 8. The stability of all elements were within 100 ± 5%, with no QC failures over the entire analytical run. The precision of all elements, displayed as % Relative Standard Error (%RSD) was ≤2.5%, except As, which was ≤5%. The recovery data demonstrates the robustness of the 5800 VDV ICP-OES for the analysis of solid-state electrolyte material for over eight hours.<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>The Agilent 5800 VDV ICP-OES with the Agilent SPS 4 autosampler was used to quantify 29 elements in 99.9% LGPS—a solid superionic material used as an electrolyte in solid-state LIBs. The samples were prepared using microwave digestion in reverse aqua regia and then analyzed by ICP-OES. With no previous methods available for reference, the following smart tools were used during the study to simplify method development and optimize the analytical workflow, ensuring consistent high-quality results throughout the analysis:&nbsp;<ul><li>The IntelliQuant Screening method development tool was used to set an appropriate calibration range and to select the best wavelengths to use for the quantitative method.&nbsp;</li><li>Intelligent Rinse greatly reduced the analysis time by monitoring analyte intensities and rinsing for the minimum required time, while maintaining data accuracy. More than 60 minutes were saved for every 100 solutions using the intuitive rinse routine, compared to the standard 60-second rinse time per solution.&nbsp;</li><li>Early Maintenance Feedback alerted the analyst when maintenance was required based on real usage, maintaining optimum instrument performance and uptime.</li></ul>The accuracy of the method was evaluated by conducting spike recovery tests of the LGPS sample. Recoveries were within 100 ± 10% in all cases, with precision (%RSD) of most elements below 2.5%. The instrument also displayed excellent stability over the eight-hour run without failing a single QC measurement. This study demonstrates that manufacturers of solid-state battery electrolytes can reliably and accurately measure impurity elements using the 5800 VDV ICP-OES.<h3>2. Shimadzu: Multi-Element Analysis of Farmland Soil Extracts Using ICPE-9820 and a Multi-Component Extraction Method&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Application note</li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/an_01_00816_en_a130c8c0fc.pdf">Full PDF for download</a></li></ul><h4>User Benefits:</h4><ul><li>The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library?mainauthorItems=1&amp;search=ICPE-9820">ICPE-9820</a> can quickly analyze farmland soil for multiple elements simultaneously.</li><li>The multi-component extraction method can be used for accurate analysis of even high salt samples (0.2 mol/L sodium chloride).&nbsp;</li></ul>Farmland soil contains constituents essential for crop growth, and their concentrations affect both yield and quality. Soil testing uses soil analysis to determine the concentrations of these constituents and the fertilization regimen needed to achieve an optimum balance of constituentsin farmland soil.&nbsp;Soil testing typically uses a different extraction process for each target analyte, requiring a large number of analytical operations, but a multi-component extraction method can be used to analyze multiple soil constituents with a single extraction process for quicker overall analysis. The Tokyo University of Agriculture soil testing system uses sodium chloride for multi-component extraction, enabling the measurement of exchangeable constituents (Al, Ca, K, Mg, P, and S) and inorganic nitrogen (ammonia nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen) and the estimation of cation exchange capacity (CEC) from the same solution extract.&nbsp;By measuring multiple elements simultaneously in a single analysis, The ICPE-9820, an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer (ICP-AES) offers quicker elemental analysis. And it can be combined with sodium chloride extraction to dramatically reduces the time required to perform soil testing.&nbsp;In this Application News, the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/library?mainauthorItems=1&amp;search=ICPE-9820">ICPE-9820</a> analyzed farmland soil solution extracts for exchangeable constituents, available boron and trace elements, and a spike recovery test and a dilution test were then performed to validate this analytical method.<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>In this Application News, exchangeable components, available boron, and trace elements were analyzed in three farmland soil solutions extracted with extraction reagents used in the Soil Diagnostic System of Tokyo University of Agriculture using ICPE9820. The results from validation testing show the analytical method was accurate. And using an axial view and radial view of plasma for different purposes allowed high-concentration and low-concentration constituents to be measured simultaneously without diluting samples for individual target analytes.<h3>3. Thermo Fisher Scientific: Pushing the limits for trace elemental analysis using triple quadrupole ICP-MS</h3><ul><li>Other document (Case study)</li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/cs_003716_tea_icp_ms_icap_mx_ultra_trace_analysis_aquitaine_cs003716_em_en_d2772efe45.pdf">Full PDF for download</a></li></ul>Ultra Trace Analysis Aquitaine (UT2A) was formed in 1999 as a spin-off laboratory from the University of Pau, France, and is today a renowned independent technology center dedicated to inorganic analysis. The team’s mission is to help their clients fully understand the elemental content of their samples—not just supporting them by performing analyses but also helping established laboratories develop and fully optimize existing methods, up to the generation of ready to implement SOPs. UT2A collaborates with customers from all industries and analyzes a wide range of samples, including waters, foods, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. UT2A also provides solutions to test established methods for evaluation of performance.&nbsp;Jean Dumont is an application engineer with a background in elemental speciation who is now managing the routine analysis performed in the laboratory. He joined UT2A in 2003 as one of the first of what is now a team of 11 technical experts and lab technicians in the field of elemental analysis. “The first ICP-MS I used did not yet have a collision cell, so we had to be very careful with interferences,” says Jean. He adds, “For us, it is also very important to include sample preparation into our considerations as it is vital to get complete digestions and also to decrease detetction limits due to backgrounds.”&nbsp;UT2A received a Thermo Scientific™ <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/products/1488">iCAP™ MTX ICP-MS</a> in their lab and have used it intensively and in full production over a period of 10 months. This was possible as the system was fully qualified using IQ/OQ. The instrument was usually operated twice per week, and on each day of operation, approximately 200 samples were run, including all blanks, standards, and QC checks.

News from LabRulezICPMS Library - Week 17, 2025

News from LabRulezICPMS Library - Week 18, 2025

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