If you don't know their origin, you can't do anything to control them. This technology may also be applicable to bacteria, which correspond to the particle size range Wilkins plans to study. The mass spectra could serve as signatures for particular types of bacteria, which could then be compared with a library of such signatures. This could solve a current problem facing medical laboratories, where it often takes days to grow enough bacteria to determine their specific identity. Wilkins has also received NSF money to use the mass spectrometer to analyze synthetic polymers, commonly found in household plastics, synthetic materials and automobiles.
Polymers typically consist of chains of chemical units linked together in certain patterns.
So when companies produce a new polymer, they want to know its detailed structure so they can relate it to the molecule's function. Polymers typically remain stable under most conditions, but using a laser, they can be fragmented and turned into ions, which scientists can analyze using mass spectrometry. Then the researchers take the fragments and put them together to determine the structure. The grants have allowed Wilkins to purchase materials to develop the new aerosol mass spectrometer and update an existing mass spectrometer so that these techniques can be incorporated into the machine's daily use. The use of mass spectrometry in particle analysis has not been attempted in this way before, but Wilkins has a history of innovating new techniques in the field of mass spectrometry.