Cones before and after

A sample cone looks like this after you clean it:
And a skimmer cone looks like this after some samples:
I think that is permanganate built up on there. Anybody else have an idea?

Slow down

It's hard to keep up in the blog world when your trying to move. I mean moving to a different residence. You always forget how much of a pain it is. I've got everything packed up in I-CHEM boxes swiped from work. Well they're not really swiped, they were getting thrown away.

Anyways, anyone know how to clean an extraction lens or re-install instrument controlling software without getting a headache?

March Update

Hopefully I'll be able to blog more than once a month. I started out thinking I could post everyday, like there would be plenty to talk about. Well, there is plenty going on, it's just a matter of remembering events and getting to a computer and thinking of a clever way to present things.

Anyways, the arsenic situation: Dumb mistake. It's too embarrasing to tell here where the false positives were coming from. Email me if you fall into a similar situation.

Anybody else hate when you pour a liquid out of a container into another container containing liquid with a wide mouth, like a bucket and the first drop hits and there's always that one drop that jumps out. Whats the deal with that? Is it the liquid that was being poured in or is it the liquid that is already sitting in the container that you poured into? Confusing? Yes.

Also, I'm going to create a blogroll on the sidebar over there to list cool scientific blogs like Derek Lowe's on Corante and Dylan something's that talks about synthetic organic grad school.

Message board

My original idea was to create a message board where mass spec researchers and analysts could discuss trouble shooting. I suggested it to the company which makes the mass spec I work with, but I havn't recieved any reply and didn't really expect it.

So, I'm taking it upon myself. I am currently an environmental chemist using mass spectrometry to analyze water and sediment samples for metals. The mass spec I use uses a quadrupole to filter the ions and it also has a type of collision cell that all the companies are putting out now. The collision cell is supposed to reduce interferents by colliding the interferents with other gas molecules supplied into the collision cell. It also has kinetic energy discrimination which uses some various lens voltages within the collision cell to limit the range of kinetic energies in the ion beam coming out of the collision cell.

I've got everything working pretty well after battling for 6 to 8 months. But I still have some elusive problems which is why I'm creating this blog, or message board.

Anybody analyze Arsenic in salt water with a collision cell? I can't get rid of some interferent at mass 75 which gives me a constant result of 6 - 10ppb in salt water samples that are confirmed having less arsenic by a optical method (ICP emission.) I can discuss a lot more if anybody else knows anything about this.