IFL has secured the purchase of equipment that is hoped to open up the possibility of new research projects, both domestic and foreign. The aim is to build a new research division at IFL around the equipment, and a foreign expert has been hired to lead that work.
There are two new devices, namely the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) device and the Hydraulic Analyzer (HPLC) that can be used separately. The ICP-MS instrument will be used, among other things, to measure inorganic trace elements and the instrument has various advantages over older methods, such as measuring atomic absorption (AA) with a flame device and graphite furnace. The new device offers a much faster method when looking at many substances in each sample, and with this method the detection limits of the trace elements are generally much lower than with older methods.
The hydraulic manifold (HPLC) can be connected to the front of the ICP-MS instrument and the HPLC-ICP-MS instrument assembly is installed.
According to Helgi Gunnlaugsdóttir, head of the IFL Research Division, the goal is to build a new research field within inorganic trace element analysis, which involves research and measurements of the form analysis of different chemical forms of metals in food, and HPLC-ICP-MS technology will be used in this research. The reason why the form analysis of metals is considered a special field of research is that different chemical forms of metals have different toxicity. What is driving the progress in this area of trace element analysis is related to the authorities' concern about the toxicity of certain chemical forms of metals in food and their impact on human health.
Last March, a specialist was hired, Dr Ernst Schmeisser from Austria, and he will lead the development of this new research area at IFL. Dr. Schmeisser has previously performed diagnostics of, for example, arsenic by HPLC-ICP-MS in organic samples.