Running the ICP with your prepared standards

At this point, if you have managed not to spill nitric acid on yourself or had to switch gloves because it ate a hole through them, congrats!

1. After the standards have been made and the ICP has had time to warm up, press “scan” tab and “Peak Optics”. Run “Full” while observing the waveforms. The signal should be near the middle of each peak.

2. After “Peak Optics” has been run, it is now time to position the plasma with respect to the detector. Move the tip to cup 14 (this is where your Mn and Fe only standard should be). Press “to cup” and from the drop down next to that option, you can choose which cup. Watch the tip move to cup 14. Allow 2 minutes. Make sure “axial” metals button is pushed down. Select “position plasma”. In that tab, select “run manual”. Make sure the signal is aligned in the middle of each peak (Red vertical line, adjusted by clicking the up arrow next to the graph). Press “Accept”. Do again. Repeat if needed until the signal is in the middle of each peak. Move tip to rinse and rinse for two minutes. (Why 2 minutes?? The long tube needs to completely empty out before drawing up a new solution)

3. Now we need to optimize the wavelengths. After the 2 minute rinse, move the tip into the highest concentration standard (10 ppm; cup 10). Allow 2 minutes. Enter a “Scan ID” and press “Scan”. Review all the metals as they produce their peaks. Make sure the signal is in or close to the middle of each peak. If the line is off center by 2 or more steps, call Dr. Hallen or Dr. McCurry. (This probably won’t happen… it would have to significantly be off. The red line would be WAY off on the side of the peak)

4. Return to tip to rinse and rinse for another 2 minutes. Set a timer.

5. To run the Standards, go to the “Standard” tab. Select the standards to be run (left side, Std. 1, Std. 2….to how many standards you have…usually 10 standards). Individually select the replicates to be run (Rep 1, Rep 2, Rep 3). Check C2, C3, and C4.

6. Select “Stnd auto” and the tip should move to standard 1. You will need to look at the calibration curves in the database (DB down arrow) and “Accept all lines” (as long as Rho = .975) to proceed once all standards have been run. Then hit RN (up arrow) to place the curve into the run window.

7. If you find a standard curve that is skewed uncheck the intensity that is significantly different to acheive a better Rho value.

8. For Samples, go to “Sample” tab. Select the rack file that was saved for the samples to be run today. Set both the “start” and “end” cups (i.e. if you only have 22 samples, start cup is 1 and end is 22). Select “Run auto”.

9. To view Results (while the samples are being tested), use the “report” tab. To view the results to print them, you must use the DB to view the results. Once in this tab, select the “report” tab and choose the specific data set in the right corner you wish to view. In the lower window, you can choose which file you want to see the samples. Check the boxes of the Sample IDs you wish to print. You can “generate” a report to viewer, printer, or data file. The report will need to be exported to Excel. On the desktop, there is a file Leeman Lab Profile Word docx. If you open that, at the end there will be very confusing instruction on how to do so… it would be best to just ask Dr. McCurry