A forensic case study using FT-IR, portable Raman spectroscopy, and SEM-EDS to differentiate three-layer automotive coatings from a hit-and-run accident, demonstrating that combining complementary spectroscopic and elemental techniques improves the accuracy of paint evidence identification.
The deadline to submit nominations for the 2027 Coblentz Award, presented annually to an outstanding young molecular spectroscopist under the age of 40, has been extended to August 31, 2026.
In this preview of the upcoming American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting, we sat down with Pavithraa “Pavi” Sundararajan, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center, to ask her about what she is looking forward to at the conference.
The Altar Stone cannot be taken to a laboratory for analysis, but portable Raman analyzers are getting the job done on-site.
The 29th International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy (ICORS) takes place next week in Istanbul, Turkey. We preview the conference here.
What are some of the talks that we are keeping our eyes on as the ACS Conference starts next week?
This interactive e-book covers the recent trends and developments in analytical spectroscopy and how it is being used in archaeology and cultural heritage analysis.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, paired with statistical modeling, can non-destructively distinguish human, dog, and cat bloodstains on sand and soil, offering a preliminary proof-of-concept for field-deployable forensic screening tools.
In this preview of the upcoming American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting, we sat down with Pavithraa “Pavi” Sundararajan, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center, discusses how spectroscopic techniques have been applied in the study of nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Top articles published this week include a new peer-reviewed article how laser pulse width and repetition rate affect quantitative elemental analysis of aluminum alloys using fiber laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and more.
In this preview of the upcoming American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting, we sat down with Pavithraa “Pavi” Sundararajan, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center, previews her upcoming talk on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Researchers developed spherical and hollow gold nanoparticle-based SERS platforms that enable label-free molecular imaging of chemotherapy drug effects and drug release within cancer cells, offering a theranostic tool with potential applications in early cancer diagnostics.
In the second episode of “Spectroscopy Around the Globe,” host Will Wetzel takes viewers on a journey to England to explore how spectroscopy is being used to uncover the secrets of Stonehenge.
A study using fiber laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (FL-LIBS) to evaluate how pulse width and repetition rate affect the quantitative analysis of elements in aluminum alloys, reporting improved detection sensitivity and limit of detection at high repetition rate.
Environmental analysis is a growing area of study, and single-particle inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) is one of the techniques contributing to this growth.
What are some of the limitations of elemental selective techniques?
The following articles are the most accessed digital object identifier (DOI) manuscripts for Spectroscopy and LCGC International during the month of July 2026. Nine articles are ranked here by DOI page views; a tenth entry in the July report (135 views) was recorded against the bare journal-level DOI rather than an individual article and is therefore not attributable to a single manuscript.
How can inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detect particles that were missed in initial analyses?
An upcoming poster presentation set to take place at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting will explore how spectroscopy is being used to distinguish different roasted coffee types.
This "Pathways in Spectroscopy" episode highlights why adapting to new technologies is essential for growing a career in science.
Can spectroscopy make real-time monitoring in nuclear and radioisotope facilities faster and safer?
An upcoming talk at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2026 Fall Meeting will address a key question in membrane biophysics.
Welcome to “Analytically Speaking,” the podcast from LCGC International and Spectroscopy. Here in Episode #47, podcast host Dr. Jerry Workman speaks with Dr. Thomas Mayerhöfer from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) in Jena, Germany, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, about “the other half” of the Beer–Lambert law: dispersion theory, the concentration law of the refractive index, and refractive-index and complex-valued chemometrics. Dr. Mayerhöfer, who first joined the podcast for Episode #29 on the history and theory of infrared spectroscopy, returns to explain how Beer’s law falls out of dispersion theory as a limiting case, why the refractive index obeys a concentration law of its own that was mainstream physical chemistry before about 1920 (and helped confirm the Kekulé structure of benzene), and how new refractive-index and complex-valued chemometric methods — in combination with PLS — can outperform conventional absorbance-based calibration by up to an order of magnitude.
Top articles published this week include a preview of an upcoming presentation at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2026 Fall Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has moved from the laboratory to the field, offering rapid, in situ elemental analysis of minerals, rocks, soils, and meteorites with minimal sample preparation. This practical tutorial covers LIBS instrumentation, field sampling best practices, quantification methods, common pitfalls, and emerging applications in geoscience.
For 170 years, spectroscopists have built quantitative analysis on only one number pulled from every spectrum they ever recorded, discarding its inseparable twin. New dispersion-theory and complex-valued chemometric methods recover that missing half, the refractive index, and in favorable systems cut calibration error by as much as an order of magnitude.
Cellular autofluorescence often masks target signals in time-resolved fluorescence imaging, and metal-based phosphors that could solve this raise toxicity and cost concerns. Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials offer a metal-free alternative with long emission lifetimes, and early studies show promise despite remaining challenges with quenching, solubility, and spectral purity.
Nearly every diabetic on earth still stabs a finger to measure their blood sugar, but a small army of lasers, infrared beams, and machine-learning algorithms is quietly plotting to end that ritual for good. This review tracks the photons chasing glucose through skin, from near-infrared reflectance to Raman fingerprints, and asks why the “needle-free” promise keeps slipping just out of reach.
How is the water quality in Biscayne Bay? A talk at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting will explore this.
A technical white paper deriving the classical least squares (CLS) and weighted least squares (WLS) models and showing how generalized least squares (GLS) and extended least squares (ELS) extend CLS to provide clutter suppression for characterized interference signals in spectroscopic and hyperspectral measurements.
