Kochi: Cusat acquires 2 modern equipment

Kochi: Two advanced equipments, an Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrom-eter (ICP-MS) and Powder X-Ray Diffractometer (PXRD), are set to be part of the Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) attached to the Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Centre (STIC) of Cochin University of Science and Technology.

The Rs 2.20 crore facility is fully financed by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It will be inaugurated jointly by Dr Sudheer, the executive vice-president of, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Engin-eering (KSCSTE) and Dr K.N. Madhusoodanan, CUSAT vice-chancellor, on July 2. The ICP-MS is used for elemental detection and analysis of elements including traces of heavy metals in water, biological/clinical samples, environmental samples, rocks, soils, clays, composites, minerals and other materials. This newly installed ICP-MS is capable of measuring all analytes in a single Helium Kinetic Energy Discrimination (He KED) mode and can even measure Lithium and Beryllium at sub PPT levels with excellent interference removal with high ion transmission.

The PXRD has numerous applications in material investigation, characterization and quality control for industrial and academic research which include quantitative determination of minerals in geological specimen, degree of crystallinity determination of polymers, crystallographic data refinement and outline crystallographic analysis. The new PXRD is equipped with reflection/ transmission/ parallel beam geometry and gracing incidence, in-line focus and pair focus.

“STIC is in the process of setting up a full-fledged water testing facility as per BIS standards,”  said Dr J. Jagannath Bhat, director in charge of the centre.

“SAIF, initiated in 2004 is widely utilized by research community in academic, R&D labs and industriesthroughout the country,” Dr. Bhat (ph:9447466005) added.