Hi Iolite team,

I am running a LA-ICP-MS/MS lab (Agilent 8900). A few days ago, I tried to do the data reduction of trace elements data obtained under MS/MS mode using iolite but iolite failed to produce the reasonable results. I found the issue was related to how the iolite treats the MS/MS data.

For example: under MS/MS mode with reaction cell filled with O2, the csv. file produced by Agilent 8900 records the isotopes information in the sequence like this: S33 -> 33 (on-mass mode; the part of S33 that does not react with oxygen), S33 -> 49 (mass-shift mode; the part of the S34 that reacts with oxygen to form S49), S34 -> 34 and S34 -> 50. Let's say these four channels are assgined with data1 (S33 -> 33), data2 (S33 -> 49), data3 (S34 -> 34) and data4 (S34 -> 50), respectively.
When importing data into the iolite, iolite automatically converts the isotope information into S33, S49, S34 and S50, and then rearranges these channels in the order of isotope mass number (from smallest to largest) like this: S33, S34, S49 and S50 without reassgining the data. In that, after importing the data, the S33 is assigned with data1 (this is OK), S34 assigned with data2 (should be assgined to S49), S49 assigned with data3 (should be assigned to S34) and S50 assgined with data4 (this is OK). As you can see, the way that iolite treats MS/MS mode data causes the mixmatch which produces the wrong final results.

I was wondering if iolite can keep the original isotope information (S33 -> 33, not S33) and then arrange the channels in accordance with the Agilent files like this: S33 -> 33 , S33 -> 49, S34 -> 34 and S34 -> 50. By doing that, this issue may be solved, but I don't know if this is doable as it may cause other bugs? Or do you guys have any suggestions to solve this issue?

Thanks so much.
Shiqiang Huang