Nu Instruments has released Sapphire, a collision/reaction cell, multi-collector inductively coupled mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS). The instrument has a high-energy path that enables it to be used as a traditional multi-collector ICP-MS with no compromise in performance, as well as a low-energy path in which the ion beam is directed through a hexapole collision cell for the removal of the ICP-induced molecular species that interfere directly with the atomic ions of the same nominal mass of some non-traditional isotopes. Sapphire can analyse these systems in low-resolution mode by removing the molecular species, without compromising the ion transmission, significantly reducing sample size requirements and increasing the isotopic measurement precision and accuracy to the counting statistics level.
