Sponsored Content

Creating uniform and repeatable monolayers is incredibly important for both scientific pursuits as well as the manufacturing of products in semiconductor, biotechnology, and. other industries. However, measuring monolayers and functionalized surfaces directly is. difficult, and many rely on a variety of characterization techniques that when used together can provide some degree of confidence. By combining non-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) and IR spectroscopy, IR PiFM provides sensitive and accurate analysis of sub-monolayer of molecules without the concern of tip-sample cross contamination. Dr. Sung Park, Molecular Vista, joined Spectroscopy to provide insights on how IR PiFM can acquire IR signature of monolayer films due to its unique implementation.

Elena Hagemann, Product Manager for Process Spectroscopy at Metrohm USA, discusses a novel synchronized, automatic calibration data collector. This system eliminates the laborious calibration process of prediction model development without manual sampling. This capability allows moisture measurement systems to be calibrated at the factory down to approximately 7 ppm and to be installed in pipelines and reactors without additional calibration effort.

Dr. Derek Nowak discusses PiFM, an AFM-IR-based technique, to explain how IR spectroscopy and imaging can be extended to the nanoscale. With sub 5 nm lateral resolution and single-molecule-level sensitivity, PiFM opens up a wide variety of research avenues ranging from exploring nano-crystallin structures for drug delivery to process/failure analysis in semiconductor nanofabrication.

With the rising consumption of protein, there has been a focus on non-animal alternatives. Six primary sources that are now available or in development for commercial use in the food chain include: animal-based proteins (ABP), plant-based proteins (PBP), fermentation-based proteins, insect-based proteins, cell culture-based proteins, and hybrid proteins. With a call for testing, Agilent has solutions for every step of the process.

With the rise of alternative sources of protein, manufacturers of protein substitutes must ensure the safety and nutritional content of their products. Therefore, measuring heavy metals and nutrient elements is an important part of any food quality system. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is the ideal technique for this application.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has proven to be an excellent tool for measuring heavy metals and other elements of interest in alternative proteins. A recent study analyzed a range of plant-based and insect-based alternative proteins according to FDA EAM Method 4.7 on the Agilent 7850 ICP-MS with highly successful results. Strategies for achieving confidence in the data were also developed.