Blank Spectrum Correction as a Robust Solution to Artifacts in Quantitative X-ray Fluorescence Mapping.
6 affiliations
- 1Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology, Michigan State University, 567 Wilson Rd., East Lansing, Michigan48824, United States.
- 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Superior St., Chicago, Illinois60611, United States.
- 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, Illinois60208, United States.
- 4Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Michigan State University, 965 Wilson Rd., East Lansing, Michigan48824, United States.
- 5Departments of Chemistry and Biophysics, University of Michigan, 930 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan48109, United States.
- 6Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, 578 S. Shaw Ln, East Lansing, Michigan48824, United States.
Abstract
X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) continues to develop as a powerful quantitative technique for high-resolution, label-free, elemental mapping of biological, environmental, and material samples. Methods for rigorously fitting spectra, increasing throughput, accounting for background signals, and deconvoluting overlapping emission lines continue to evolve. We show here that quantitative fits of XFM data obtained after removing a baseline, calculated by peak stripping, can be unexpectedly dependent upon acquisition dwell-time and spectral aggregation, leading to differences in apparent elemental content. Using mouse preimplantation embryos and ovarian follicles as model samples, we demonstrate how these variables influence quantitative comparisons between samples. We find that subtracting an empirically measured blank spectrum instead of a baseline provides quantitative XFM elemental mapping results that are independent of dwell time and spectral aggregation dependencies.
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BibTeX
@article{crawford2026blank,
title = {{Blank Spectrum Correction as a Robust Solution to Artifacts in Quantitative X-ray Fluorescence Mapping.}},
author = {Andrew M Crawford and Julia Balough and Yu-Ying Chen and Qiaoling Jin and Keith W MacRenaris and Seth Garwin and Teresa K Woodruff and Chris Jacobsen and James E Penner-Hahn and Thomas V O'Halloran},
journal = {Analytical chemistry},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1021/acs.analchem.6c03597},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916377},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Blank Spectrum Correction as a Robust Solution to Artifacts in Quantitative X-ray Fluorescence Mapping.
AU - Andrew M Crawford
AU - Julia Balough
AU - Yu-Ying Chen
AU - Qiaoling Jin
AU - Keith W MacRenaris
AU - Seth Garwin
AU - Teresa K Woodruff
AU - Chris Jacobsen
AU - James E Penner-Hahn
AU - Thomas V O'Halloran
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Analytical chemistry
DO - 10.1021/acs.analchem.6c03597
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916377
AB - X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) continues to develop as a powerful quantitative technique for high-resolution, label-free, elemental mapping of biological, environmental, and material samples. Methods for rigorously fitting spectra, increasing throughput, accounting for background signals, and deconvoluting overlapping emission lines continue to evolve. We show here that quantitative fits of XFM data obtained after removing a baseline, calculated by peak stripping, can be unexpectedly dependent upon acquisition dwell-time and spectral aggregation, leading to differences in apparent elemental content. Using mouse preimplantation embryos and ovarian follicles as model samples, we demonstrate how these variables influence quantitative comparisons between samples. We find that subtracting an empirically measured blank spectrum instead of a baseline provides quantitative XFM elemental mapping results that are independent of dwell time and spectral aggregation dependencies.
SN - 0003-2700
SN - 1520-6882
ER -