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IU Chemistry Technology Detects Cocaine On Most Paper Money

By Barbara Brosher

Posted August 12, 2015

Thousands of bacteria are living on the money we carry every day. Every time we touch a dollar bill, some of that bacteria is making its way onto our skin – and that's not all. A comprehensive 2009 study spearheaded by Dr. Yuegang Zuo with the University of Maryland in Dartmouth revealed about 90 percent of the country's paper money is contaminated by cocaine.

Scientists at Indiana University are putting that theory – and many others – to the test using newer, faster technology. Just about every bill they perform an experiment on in the chemistry lab ends up showing the same result.

"When it's tuned correctly, we've never not found cocaine," says PhD Candidate Andrew Storey.

It's a small amount, but the speed at which it's detected shows just how powerful the technology can be.

"What's really interesting about our method is that we're able to find that cocaine within a matter of seconds on a dollar bill, where as a lot of the older techniques would require hours," Storey says.

But testing dollar bills is just one use for the machine. You can place just about anything in front of the source and quickly detect whether a certain element is present.

And, that has lots of important applications – like national security.

"We've been able to detect explosives quite readily," Storey says.

It's possible thanks to a mass spectrometer and glowing, purple helium – known as the flowing atmospheric afterglow source. That source is the key to getting results in a matter of minutes.

"It's able to very quickly exchange energy that's coming from the source onto whatever sample is placed in front of it," Storey says.

IU scientists have used the machine to test foods, drugs and even computer chips. And as they continue to conduct more experiments, scientists expect to come across dozens more real-world uses for the instrument.

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