Authenticity assessment of banknotes using portable near infrared spectrometer and chemometrics.

Spectra recorded using a portable near infrared (NIR) spectrometer, Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) associated to Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA) models were applied to identify counterfeit and authentic Brazilian Real (R$20, R$50 and R$100) banknotes, enabling a simple field analysis. NIR spectra (950-1650nm) were recorded from seven different areas of the banknotes (two with fluorescent ink, one over watermark, three with intaglio printing process and one over the serial numbers with typography printing). SIMCA and SPA-LDA models were built using 1st derivative preprocessed spectral data from one of the intaglio areas. For the SIMCA models, all authentic (300) banknotes were correctly classified and the counterfeits (227) were not classified. For the two classes SPA-LDA models (authentic and counterfeit currencies), all the test samples were correctly classified into their respective class. The number of selected variables by SPA varied from two to nineteen for R$20, R$50 and R$100 currencies. These results show that the use of the portable near-infrared with SIMCA or SPA-LDA models can be a completely effective, fast, and non-destructive way to identify authenticity of banknotes as well as permitting field analysis.

Near Infrared Spectroscopy Detection and Quantification of Herbal Medicines Adulterated with Sibutramine.

There is an increasing demand for herbal medicines in weight loss treatment. Some synthetic chemicals, such as sibutramine (SB), have been detected as adulterants in herbal formulations. In this study, two strategies using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy have been developed to evaluate potential adulteration of herbal medicines with SB: a qualitative screening approach and a quantitative methodology based on multivariate calibration. Samples were composed by products commercialized as herbal medicines, as well as by laboratory adulterated samples. Spectra were obtained in the range of 14,000-4000 per cm. Using PLS-DA, a correct classification of 100% was achieved for the external validation set. In the quantitative approach, the root mean squares error of prediction (RMSEP), for both PLS and MLR models, was 0.2% w/w. The results prove the potential of NIR spectroscopy and multivariate calibration in quantifying sibutramine in adulterated herbal medicines samples.

Use of Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics to distinguish blue ballpoint pen inks.

The objective of this work is assessing whether the combination of Raman spectroscopy and chemometric tools is appropriate to differentiate blue ballpoint pen inks. Fourteen commercial blue ballpoint pen inks from different brands and models were studied and Raman spectra were obtained on ink lines written on A4 sulfite paper. First, a study of the best Raman configurations, in terms of laser intensity used and acquisition mode, was carried out to ensure sufficient spectroscopic quality without damaging the sample. Chemometric methods were applied first to improve the definition of spectral bands and to suppress fluorescence contributions from the signal. Once the spectra were suitably preprocessed, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were applied to explore whether the different inks could be distinguished from their Raman spectra. Almost all inks could be gradually differentiated, through successive PCA analyses or looking at the different levels of the dendrogram structure provided by HCA. From these exploratory results, a tree structure was constructed based on PCA and HCA results in order to reflect the degree of similarity among ink classes. This tree structure was used as the basis to develop hierarchical classification models based on partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Correct classification of inks was achieved by these PLS-DA models built and the most important regions to identify the ink classes were detected using the variable importance in projection plots (VIPs). The combination of Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics has been proven to be a promising fast non-destructive tool to differentiate among very similar ink types in documents.

A flow-batch internal standard procedure for iron determination in hydrated ethanol fuel by flame atomic absorption spectrometry.

A flow-batch manifold coupled to a flame atomic absorption spectrometer was evaluated to assess the iron content by the internal standard method in hydrated ethanol used as fuel in automotive industry. For this assessment official methods require calibration procedures with matrix matching, making it difficult to obtain accurate results for samples adulterated by the addition of water. Nickel was selected as the internal standard since it is usually absent in samples and because it requires similar conditions of atomization. After procedure optimization, which requires about 4.25mL of sample and standard per measurement, it was possible to get linear analytical response for iron concentrations between 0.12 and 1.40mgL(-1) and a detection limit of 0.04mgL(-1). Eighteen samples were collected randomly from fuel stations in Pernambuco (Brazil) and iron concentration was determined using the proposed procedure. Comparison of results obtained (0.20-1.50mgL(-1)) showed a mean standard error of 3.9%, with 3.8% and 2.3% calculated for the mean variation coefficients of the proposed method and the reference procedure, respectively. For adulterated samples (0.12-0.64mgL(-1)), the mean standard error was 4.8% when compared with the standard addition method. These results allowed concluding that the proposed procedure is adequate to accomplish the determination of iron in ethanol fuel in a large scale basis with a sampling rate of about 10h(-1).

Analytical curve or standard addition method: how to elect and design--a strategy applied to copper determination in sugarcane spirits using AAS.

In most instrumental analysis, the analyte concentration is usually obtained the by Analytical Curve Method (ACM) or Standard Addition Method (SAM). Thus, it is important for the analyst to select the most appropriate method, to seek the best conditions of analysis, and to provide parameters of analytical performance. A strategy to do so is proposed in this paper in conjunction with MATLAB software to implement it. The proposed strategy was applied to copper determination by atomic absorption spectrometry in Brazilian sugarcane spirits termed 'Cachaça' and SAM was chosen as the most appropriate method. To select the best experimental design for SAM, the influence of some factors, such as the number of standard additions and concentration levels, the location of the levels and the average concentration of the standard additions were demonstrated. The design with six standard additions, four concentration levels located near the inferior and superior levels and the average concentration of the standard additions closer to zero yielded SAM with an adequate compromise between precision, cost and time of analysis. The uniform distribution of concentration levels, usually used in routine analysis, is not a good design regarding precision. On the other hand, it is adequate when the linear range is unknown. Generally, the proposed strategy can be applied to different instrumental techniques and samples, which aim to improve their analytical performance.