Proposal submitted, ICP-MS working better than before
Spent today running back and forth between my office and the lab. The service technicians did regular preventive maintenance yesterday, changing o-rings, filters, etc. Today was supposed to be just a quick recalibration and check that it passes performance reports.
But it had some weird issues with mass calibration that he hadn't seen before, especially coupled with such otherwise good sensitivity.
In between checking in with them I got feedback from first one and then another of my colleagues with minor improvements to the grant application.by 15:00 I had re-uploadef all three documents at least once each, and re-submitted the packet yet again.
But then I had heard back from everyone, and the application was as complete as it will ever be. So I returned to the lab, where our technicians were still perplexed. Their flight isn't till tomorrow, so they were resolved to stay as late as needed to solve it, and we agreed I should pedal home, and they could call when ready to come back and hook the laser back up
They finally called at 19:45, so I drove back in and we got the laser and ICP-MS playing nicely together. It turns out that a major factor was that he didn't realise we use the high sensitivity insert in our cones, and so had programed the settings for the normal inserts. He says he won't make that mistake ever again.
But it had some weird issues with mass calibration that he hadn't seen before, especially coupled with such otherwise good sensitivity.
In between checking in with them I got feedback from first one and then another of my colleagues with minor improvements to the grant application.by 15:00 I had re-uploadef all three documents at least once each, and re-submitted the packet yet again.
But then I had heard back from everyone, and the application was as complete as it will ever be. So I returned to the lab, where our technicians were still perplexed. Their flight isn't till tomorrow, so they were resolved to stay as late as needed to solve it, and we agreed I should pedal home, and they could call when ready to come back and hook the laser back up
They finally called at 19:45, so I drove back in and we got the laser and ICP-MS playing nicely together. It turns out that a major factor was that he didn't realise we use the high sensitivity insert in our cones, and so had programed the settings for the normal inserts. He says he won't make that mistake ever again.