Tracer isotopes yield atomic John Hancock

17 Jun 2002

Industries that need to track a chemical through a complex process or distinguish their product from an exact copy now can make use of an atomic signature. Anychemical can be tagged with an isotope -- a nonradioactive, synthetic atomic species of an element -- that can be read only by extremely sensitive tests. The tracerisotopes can be added in amounts far too small to affect a product or process.

Los Alamos' Clean Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory can detect and analyze samples as small as one trillionth of a gram. Nevertheless, isotopic tagsprovide an unambiguous signature to identify a manufacturer or source. For example, isotopic tags could be used to help identify the source of iron impurities inmicrochips or help sort out sources of contamination in an industrial waste stream.