Expanding the Applicability of Inductively Coupled Plasma Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Clinical and Semiconductor Industries

This internship aims at advancing the use of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for the analysis of clinical samples (including whole blood) and of materials used by the semiconductor industry during their manufacturing process. The complexity of biological samples indeed limits the broad use of conventional inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) for their analysis. For instance, the measurement of a very small concentration of manganese in whole blood is highly skewed due to the presence of a huge concentration of iron. However, ICPMS/MS allows the accurate measurement of the Mn concentration directly in whole blood, without sample pretreatment. An extremely small quantity of impurities must be measured in the high-purity chemicals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, as any impurity can affect the performance of semiconductors. ICPMS/MS has great potential for decreasing the smallest quantity of impurity that can be measured (called detection limit), thereby allowing the semiconductor industry to improve their purification procedures. During this project, the intern will research instrument conditions that improve detection limits and develop methods for the analysis of clinical and semiconductor samples to benefit PerkinElmer’s customers and thereby substantially increase PerkinElmer’s competitiveness in the ICPMS/MS market.

Faculty Supervisor:

Diane Beauchemin

Student:

Ram P Lamsal

Partner:

PerkinElmer Inc

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

Queen's University