This Week’s Spectroscopy News
“Cryofixing” Raman microscopy’s signal-to-noise problem, miniaturized all-fiber photoacoustic spectrometer, and more spec-tacular stories!
James Strachan | | 2 min read | News
Raman image of rapidly frozen HeLa cells with high signal-to-noise ratio and large field-of-view. The image acquisition time was 10 hours. The distribution of Raman signals from cytochromes (750 cm⁻¹), lipids (2850 cm⁻¹), proteins (2920 cm⁻¹), are indicated in green, red, and blue, respectively.
Credit: Sci. Adv. 10, eadn0110 (2024)
Essential Reading
Freeze Frame
Raman microscopy has emerged as a promising, non-destructive tool for imaging the distribution of molecules in biological samples, allowing researchers to, for example, visualize cell dynamics and drug effects. The main challenge, however, lies in extracting a strong, reliable signal from the biomolecular din. A solution suggested by research from Osaka University, Japan, is to “cryofix” (that is, freeze) the samples, thereby reducing molecular motion over long acquisition times to produce sharper chemical images – eight times sharper, the researchers found.
"By imaging frozen samples that were unable to move, we could use longer exposure times without damaging the samples,” said lead author Kenta Mizushima in a press release. “This led to high signals compared with the background, high resolution, and larger fields of view."
Straight to the Point
Researchers from China have developed a miniaturized, all-fiber photoacoustic spectrometer (FPAS); its key components, i.e. the photoacoustic gas cell and optical microphone, have been integrated into a tip with a diameter of just 125 μm. Despite its small size, the new system is almost as sensitive as larger, traditional laboratory spectrometers – reaching detection limits for acetylene as low as 9 ppb. The researchers believe the new system could be used for real-time and in situ trace gas measurement in various fields, such as intravascular blood gas monitoring, lithium-ion battery health assessments, and remote detection of explosive gas leakage.
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