Design for atmospheric pressure ionization sources came of age in the late 1980s to provide a powerful analytical tool—the mass spectrometer —the ability to characterize analytes amenable to liquid chromatography as gas-phase ions removed from the liquid. The motivating force behind such invention has always been the need to answer questions better and faster with tools that provide greater utility.

Trying to replace a specialty gas with an industrial gas in order to save a few dollars at the onset will cost the buyer more money downstream.

At Georgia Tech, researchers from the Colleges of Sciences and Engineering have joined forces to create the Center for Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry. Understanding biology at the systems level is difficult, especially when studying complex specimens like tissue slices or communities of organisms in a biofilm. Scientists must be able to identify, quantify and locate the molecules present in the samples. The Center for Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry aims to tackle these types of challenges.

Multiplexing technology enables parallel HPLC systems to synchronize to a single mass spectrometer.

A case study shows how ICP-MS played a vital role in the investigation of lead levels in a public schools system's drinking water supply.