The University of New Orleans’ chemistry department has acquired a new research tool that allows researchers to analyze and identify trace samples with more accuracy.
The state-of-the-art tool comes with a $1 million price tag and a name that’s a mouthful to say. The inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled with an interchangeable excimer laser ablation system is the only one in the Southeast United States.
The closest machine with similar capabilities is at Auburn University, but it doesn’t have the triple quadrupole, UNO chemistry professor Phoebe Zito said. She refers to the tool by its initials: ICP-QQQ.