MRI: Acquisition of a GC-MS/MS

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With this award from the Chemistry Major Research Instrumentation Program, Professor Ralph Mead from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and colleague Pamela Seaton will acquire a gas chromatograph triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS). The proposal is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) characterization of photoproducts generated from the destruction of emerging contaminates in natrural waters; (b) detection, identification and understanding of the transport of pollutants on marine plastics; and (c) structural elucidation of tructural elucidation of triglycerides in aquaculture raised fish to optimize growth and assess nutritional quality.A gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer vaporizes and separates a multi component mixture which then passes into the mass spectrometer where the components are ionized. The mass spectrometer determines the mass/charge ratio of these particles (parent molecular ion and fragment ions). This highly sensitive technique allows determination of the masses of the particles, their chemical composition and enables one to deduce the structure of the substances in a complex mixture. The tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) involves multiple steps with some form of fragmentation occurring between stages. The instrumentation provided by this award will allow faculty and students the opportunity to pursue research projects of environmental importance at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. It will advance the training of many students in the use of this important and widely used analytical technique.