Teledyne Leeman Labs Blog

The gold standard. Go for the gold. A gold medal.

Gold is highly prized for its beauty, as a measure of wealth, a jewelry mainstay and more. When it comes to the analysis of mercury, gold has a very particular value in obtaining data at the ultra-trace level.

Mercury poisoning is a serious concern for those of us who directly work with mercury. Mercury is a heavy metal with many adverse side effects for people and the environment, even in relatively small amounts. That is why mercury analyzers are useful for testing where health concerns exist; you likely use one in your own lab if you’re reading this.

This is the third in a three-part series on Getting to know your  QuickTrace^® — The effect of liquid flow.

To catch up on the other blogs in this series click the links below:

• Part one: Getting to Know your QuickTrace^®: The Effect of Liquid Flow: Pump Rate
• Part two: Getting to Know Your  QuickTrace^® - The Effect of Liquid Flow: Importance of Capillary Action

This is the second in a three-part series on the QuickTrace^® . 

Part one is linked here, “Getting to Know Your  QuickTrace^®: The Effect of Liquid Flow — Pump Rate"

There are always lots of factors when it comes to running any samples: concentrations present, liquid and gas flow rates, unit detection limits, to name a few. The liquid flow is highly important in the QuickTrace^® M7600 and QuickTrace^® M8000 due to the sample and reagents being introduced by the liquid flow. In this three-part series, we will focus on three major elements that can affect liquid flow: the pump rate, the capillary action, and the tubing.

Hey All, I am one of the newest members of the Teledyne Leeman Labs team and getting my start as a Quality Control Chemist for the Mercury Analyzers. I really came across the position shortly after college, in part from my research as a senior, identifying heavy metals in wastewater, specifically Mercury and Selenium. My professor reached out thinking the position would be perfect for me since I had expressed a large interest in working on the instrumental side of chemistry, and it being similar to my research. I was overwhelmed at first having little knowledge of the company before hand and the analyzers being different in the technology compared to what I had previously run. The methods were very similar, for most of the analyzers in practice but getting to know and work with 4 new analyzers was still a lot to take in. Ultimately, I was excited for the challenge, even with the overwhelming amount to learn as I was becoming bored with the monotony of my current job at the time, and felt I was mostly isolated in the lab.

Coming into the position of a Quality Control Chemist, I knew there would be a lot to learn just in a new job. New instruments, new techniques, new procedures to follow there was going to be a large amount to learn just to do right. However, the tricky thing about Quality Control is having to prepare for when things go wrong too and learning from that as well. What happened, why did it happen, and can I fix it are some of the biggest questions that come up when something goes wrong.