Low-Cost Pocket Fluorometer and Chemometric Tools for Green and Rapid Screening of Deoxynivalenol in Durum Wheat Bran.

Cereal crops are frequently contaminated by deoxynivalenol (DON), a harmful type of mycotoxin produced by several Fusarium species fungi. The early detection of mycotoxin contamination is crucial for ensuring safety and quality of food and feed products, for preventing health risks and for avoiding economic losses because of product rejection or costly mycotoxin removal. A LED-based pocket-size fluorometer is presented that allows a rapid and low-cost screening of DON-contaminated durum wheat bran samples, without using chemicals or product handling. Forty-two samples with DON contamination in the 40-1650 µg/kg range were considered. A chemometric processing of spectroscopic data allowed distinguishing of samples based on their DON content using a cut-off level set at 400 µg/kg DON. Although much lower than the EU limit of 750 µg/kg for wheat bran, this cut-off limit was considered useful whether accepting the sample as safe or implying further inspection by means of more accurate but also more expensive standard analytical techniques. Chemometric data processing using Principal Component Analysis and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis demonstrated a classification rate of 79% in cross-validation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a pocket-size fluorometer was used for DON screening of wheat bran.

Smartphone-Enabled Colorimetry.

A smartphone is used as a colorimeter. The performance characterization for colorimetry is presented using both the built-in camera and a clip-on dispersive grating. Certified colorimetric samples provided by Labsphere® are considered as test samples. Color measurements directly performed utilizing the smartphone camera only are obtained using the RGB Detector app, downloaded from the Google Play Store. More precise measurements are achieved using the commercially available GoSpectro grating and related app. In both cases, to quantify the reliability and sensitivity of smartphone-based color measurements, the CIELab color difference ΔE between the certified and smartphone-measured colors is calculated and is reported in this paper. In addition, as an example of a practical application of interest for the textile industry, several samples of cloth fabrics with a palette of the most common colors are measured, and the comparison with the certified color values is presented.

Bluetooth-Connected Pocket Spectrometer and Chemometrics for Olive Oil Applications.

Unsaturated fatty acids are renowned for their beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. The high content of unsaturated fatty acids is a benefit of vegetable fats and an important nutraceutical indicator. The ability to quickly check fat composition of an edible oil could be advantageous for both consumers and retailers. A Bluetooth-connected pocket spectrometer operating in NIR band was used for analyzing olive oils of different qualities. Reference data for fatty acid composition were obtained from a certified analytical laboratory. Chemometrics was used for processing data, and predictive models were created for determining saturated and unsaturated fatty acid content. The NIR spectrum also demonstrated good capability in classifying extra virgin and non-extra virgin olive oils. The pocket spectrometer used in this study has a relatively low cost, which makes it affordable for a wide class of users. Therefore, it may open the opportunity for quick and non-destructive testing of edible oil, which can be of interest for consumer, retailers, and for small/medium-size producers, which lack easy access to conventional analytics.

Novel Probe for Thermally Controlled Raman Spectroscopy Using Online IR Sensing and Emissivity Measurements.

Temperature rise during Raman spectroscopy can induce chemical alterations of the material under analysis and seriously affect its characterization. Thus, such photothermal side effects can represent a serious problem to be carefully controlled in order to safeguard the integrity of the material and its spectral features. In this work, an innovative probe for thermally controlled portable Raman spectroscopy (exc. 785 nm) equipped with infrared sensing lines was developed. It included an infrared source and two thermopile sensors, which allowed to perform real-time measurements of the local emissivity of the material surface under laser excitation. The emissivity, which is needed in order to monitor the temperature of the irradiated surface through infrared radiation measurements, represents the complementary component of the reflectance in the radiative energy balance. Thus, total reflectance, temperature measurements and Raman spectroscopy were integrated in the present probe. After independently assessing the reliability of the former in order to derive the emissivity of variety of materials, the probe was successfully applied on pigments, paint layers, and a painting on canvas. The results achieved evidence the significant exploitation potential of the novel tool.

Quantitative Compositional Analyses of Calcareous Rocks for Lime Industry Using LIBS.

Here, the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in grading calcareous rocks for the lime industry was investigated. In particular, we developed a system equipped with non-intensified detectors operating in scanning mode, defined a suitable data acquisition protocol, and implemented quantitative data processing using both partial least squares regression (PLS-R) and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network. Tests were carried out on 32 samples collected in various limestone quarries, which were preliminarily analyzed using traditional laboratory X-ray fluorescence (XRF); then, they were divided into two groups for calibration and validation. Particular attention was dedicated to the development of LIBS methodology providing a reliable basis for precise material grading. The congruence of the results achieved demonstrates the capability of the present approach to precisely quantify major and minor geochemical components of calcareous rocks, thus disclosing a concrete application perspective within the lime industry production chain.

High Energy Double Peak Pulse Laser Induced Plasma Spectroscopy for Metal Characterization Using a Passively Q-Switched Laser Source and CCD Detector.

Here, the development and testing of a portable double peak pulse laser induced plasma spectroscopy (DPP-LIPS) based on passively Q-switched Nd:YAG (Neodymium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) laser excitation is reported. The latter delivered structured laser pulses at a repetition rate of up to 20 Hz, including two energy peaks of about 100 mJ each with a relative temporal spacing of about 80 µs. Plasma spectra were collected using a low-cost Czerny-Turner spectrometer equipped with a non-intensified CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) array. Such a DPP-LIPS setup is technologically simpler and cheaper than the usual ones. Despite the relatively large temporal separation between the mentioned laser peaks, significant spectral intensity enhancements with respect to the usual single peak pulse configuration were observed. The amplification factor measured ranged between 2 and 10, depending on the specific emission peaks and the Q-switched configuration, and a consequent significant improvement of the detection limit of trace elements was observed. The instrument was calibrated for the quantitative analysis of copper alloy through systematic measurements carried out on reference samples and was then tested in an example archaeometric characterization of a statuette from the Egyptian Museum of Florence.

Raman spectrometer for the automated scan of large painted surfaces.

In this work, a novel Raman scanner capable of performing point-to-point mapping of relatively large surface of paintings is presented. This device employs an excitation wavelength of 1064 nm, and it is equipped with a high efficiency probe in order to collect the back-scattered light from each point of analysis. The use of long depth-of-field optics as well as an autofocus system allowed maintaining the best conditions for the Raman signal acquisition during the scanning, regardless of the surface irregularities. The small dimension of the optical components and the reasonable size of mechanical parts made this instrumentation particularly suitable for on-site measurements. Finally, the Raman scanner was also equipped with an online temperature control using a thermal sensor, which allows modulating automatically the output power of the laser source in order to prevent overheating and alteration effects during the scanning process. The capabilities of the Raman scanner were evaluated scanning two valuable paintings one attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the other to Duccio da Buoninsegna of the fourteenth century.

Innovative Sensors for Environmental Monitoring in Museums.

Different physical and chemical factors, such as light, temperature, relative humidity, pollutants and so on, can affect works of art on display. Each factor does not act individually, but its effect can be enhanced or accelerated by the presence of other factors. Accordingly, an evaluation of the impact of the whole environment on art objects is recognized as an essential requirement for conservation purposes. To meet the most up-todate guidelines on preventive conservation, in recent years several scientific projects supported by the EC were aimed at developing innovative tools that could complement the standard methods for environmental monitoring in museums. These research projects produced a new generation of passive sensors that are capable of taking into account the overall environmental effects by mimicking in some way the behaviour of real works of art. The main goal of the present paper is to provide a survey of these sensors, which represent a new frontier in the environmental control in museums. Furthermore, the use of optical fibres, as both intrinsic sensors and devices for interrogating sensors, will also be illustrated, and examples of their use in the cultural heritage field will be reported.