[ToxLabRat]

Hi All,

I am currently working on a project with the chemistry department at my undergraduate university.  My university has been growing exponentially since my graduation in 2002 and it seems that the chemistry department has not had the opportunity to grow at the same rate.  All of the instrumentation is pretty old and out dated, and so I am working very hard to put together a proposal to present to the president of the university as well as some of our very generous benefactors.

So I am calling on anyone out there who would be willing to share their success stories on how the addition of an ICP-MS to their university or college has benefited both the student experience as well as the chemistry program overall. 

Also, to any recent graduates out there that were fortunate enough to attend a university that did possess a newer ICP-MS, I would appreciate any stories that you could share with me about how that experience has helped better prepare you for working in industry or moving onto graduate level work.

I am going for a Perkin Elmer, so any stories where it was a PE Elan series ICP-MS that was added will be much appreciated, but I am still very open and will very much appreciate any stories even if the vendor of the ICP-MS was not Perkin Elmer.

Thanks in advance for those who are willing to share their stories!

[renge ishyo]

I had the opportunity to work with an ICPMS a few years back in my analytical Chemistry class as an undergraduate. It is capable of amazingly accurate measurements. We did an exercise where we analyzed the chemical composition of a NIST sample, and I was able to analyze things very accurately (to the parts per billion level easily) using our ICPMS. The prep to prepare the tubes for it wasn't even that hard either. For our final projects, the students were all using ICPMS because, out of the twelve or so instruments we had, it simply gave the most sensitive analysis possible.

Having said this, you should be aware of some things about it that might not be apparent. One is that students should not operate the thing without a supervisor proficient at the instrument present at all times. For a few ideas as to why, first there was actually a 'self destruct" prompt built into our machine where if you say yes the machine destroys itself (probably present in case of emergencies with the plasma stream). You'd think it would be hidden or hard to access this prompt, but it was actually one of the easiest things to access! A student could easily stumble upon it, say yes, and ruin the machine in a heartbeat. Second, the thing uses up massive electricity to generate the plasma and the heat the machine generates would raise the temperature in the room considerably within 20 minutes. I mean you could notice it if you sat there. Third, I wasn't there for this when it actually happened, but apparently when you turn the thing on there is a chance that the initial buildup can shatter the glass casing surrounding the sample loading area. We would always have to sprint out of the room after powering up the plasma just in case before each sample run.

Aside from the dangers and concerns about the machine itself, the data you get from it IS awesome. In that sense as an analytical device I would easily take it over 10 atomic absorption spectrometers if given the choice (and enough money to run the thing .