An automated instrument for polarization-enhanced broadband nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy

Dehghanzadeh

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

The international postal network is one of the most widely used methods for correspondence throughout the world. Most postal traffic across the globe consists of legitimate interpersonal, business-consumer, and business-business communications. However, the global postal system is also utilized for criminal activity. In particular, it is often utilized to ship and distribute contraband, including illegal psychoactive drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, to consumers. Existing technological solutions are capable of identifying synthetic opioids and other illegal drugs within packages, but are accompanied by several disadvantages that make them unsuitable for large-scale authentication of international mail traffic. This paper presents a novel method for non-invasive authentication of mail packages that overcomes these challenges. The approach uses nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy to detect and quantify the presence of known active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) within the package. It has been experimentally demonstrated using a bench top prototype. Test results from a variety of package types demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed authentication approach.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-invasive authentication of mail packages using nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy

Horace-Herron

Dehghanzadeh

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

“…Authentication with even higher accuracy would be possible with the use of improved instrumentation. For example, the sample can be pre‐polarised in a static magnetic field to increase NQR signal amplitude, thus improving SNR (Glickstein & Mandal, ). Moreover, the current setup is limited to only solid supplements, since NQR is more effective for solid materials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authentication of dietary supplements through Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) spectroscopy

Zhang

Cheng

et al. 2018

Int J of Food Sci Tech

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Summary As the industry grows, adulteration of many products by mislabelling, re‐branding and false advertising is becoming prevalent practice. Existing solutions for analysis often require extensive sample preparation or are limited in terms of detecting different types of integrity issues. We describe a novel authentication method based on Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) spectroscopy which is quantitative, non‐invasive and non‐destructive. It is sensitive to small deviation in the solid‐state chemical structure of a product, which changes the NQR signal properties. These characteristics are unique for different manufacturers, resulting in manufacturer‐specific watermarks. We show that nominally identical dietary supplements from different manufacturers can be accurately classified based on features from NQR spectra. Specifically, we use a machine learning‐based classification called support vector machines (SVMs) to verify the authenticity of products under test. This approach has been evaluated on three products using semi‐custom hardware and shows promising results, with typical classification accuracy of over 95%.

“…However, the intrinsic sensitivity of 14 N NQR is relatively poor due to the low resonant frequencies (1-5 MHz) of most pharmaceutical APIs and the low gyromagnetic ratio of 14 N. The result is low SNR per scan, especially for resonant frequencies < 1 MHz. Techniques for improving SNR include 1) pre-polarization of 14 N nuclei via adiabatic polarization transfer from nearby protons [28], and 2) use of alternative detectors, such as SQUIDs [29], for low-frequency resonances. These SNR enhancement techniques are particularly valuable for small samples with lowfrequency resonances (< 1 MHz).…”

Section: B Psychoactive Drug Detection Using Nqrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-invasive Authentication of Mail Packages using Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Spectroscopy

Horace-Herron

Dehghanzadeh

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

The international postal network is one of the most widely used methods for correspondence throughout the world. Most postal traffic across the globe consists of legitimate interpersonal, business-consumer, and business-business communications. However, the global postal system is also utilized for criminal activity. In particular, it is often utilized to ship and distribute contraband, including illegal psychoactive drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, to consumers. Existing technological solutions are capable of identifying synthetic opioids and other illegal drugs within packages, but are accompanied by several disadvantages that make them unsuitable for large-scale authentication of international mail traffic. This paper presents a novel method for non-invasive authentication of mail packages that overcomes these challenges. The approach uses nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy to detect and quantify the presence of known active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) within the package. It has been experimentally demonstrated using a benchtop prototype. Test results from a variety of package types demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed authentication approach.