Background: Threats to drinking water supplies from industrial and biochemical pollutants have created the need for rapid on-site tools that detect and analyze trace contaminants in water. Current protocols for assessing water quality typically require transport of water samples to a laboratory for analysis with a plasma spectrometer. In plasma spectroscopy a water sample is sprayed into a high-frequency RF inductively-coupled plasma.

Brief Description: Geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) frequently contaminate global fresh water drinking supplies and fish raised by aquaculture methods. Estimated losses to US fish farmers are valued at approximately $60 million per year. This is due to the tainting of the flesh of farmed fish from geosmin and/or 2-MIB contaminations produced by cyanobacteria. Although nontoxic to humans geosmin and 2-MIB are generally associated with an undesirable musty or muddy taste and odor which indicates their presence.