Thus, detecting metal toxins is essential to protecting human health.
"Our new technique is one step toward the development of a simpler analysis approach that could be applied on-site and in real time.
This type of water analysis could be used by agricultural, pharmaceutical, water purification and other industries to monitor water for contaminants."
To identify contaminants, scientists used laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.
By levitating water droplets with sound waves, scientists can isolate the evaporation process and increase the concentration of contaminants in the tiny sample.
Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy uses a high-energy laser pulse to vaporize the droplet and produce a plasma.
The plasma absorbs the light and reemits unique wavelengths.
This lets them uses a slightly smaller and more energy-efficient laser, but it takes a while.
"Acoustic levitation is a simple and inexpensive method to preconcentrate the elements of interest while avoiding contamination from the substrate surface," said Contreras.
"Moreover, it does not require the sample to have any type of electric or magnetic response like some other methods used to achieve levitation."