XPS analysis of bio-organic systems

A survey of the literature is made for the XPS analysis of food products (mainly spray-dried powders, which reveal a considerable surface enrichment in lipids) and of microorganisms and related systems (extracellular polymer substances and bio-films). This survey is used as a background for discussions and recommendations regarding methodology. Sample preparation methods reviewed are freeze drying, analysis of frozen hydrated specimens and adsorption of surface-active biocompounds on model substrates. Peak decomposition is a way to increase the wealth of information provided by the XPS spectra. It should be performed after a check that sample charge stabilization is satisfactory. Moreover, ensuring the precision needed to make comparisons within sets of samples may involve a trade-off between imposing constraints and generating information. The examination of correlations between spectral data in the light of chemical guidelines is useful to validate or improve peak decomposition and component assignment, and may also upgrade the chemical information regarding speciation. Further upgrading may be achieved by expressing marker XPS data in terms of concentrations of compounds of interest. Different methods of computation are discussed, providing a composition in terms of ingredients, classes of biochemical compounds, or various organic and inorganic compounds. As an alternative or complement to this deterministic approach, multivariate analysis of suitable spectral windows provides spectral components, which may be used for comparing samples, and which may have a direct chemical relevance or be used to identify features of interest. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.