Clean Lab & Instrumentation

The Isotropics  Geochemical Lab is equipped with:

• Two Hamilton™ 1.2m ducted fume hoods for hydrofluoric and perchloric acid use
• Three Savillex© DST-1000 acid distillation units for double-distilled HNO₃ and double-distilled HCl production
• A positive-pressure laminar flow clean bench (Heraguard™ ECO 1.5m)
• Retrofitted door sealants and refurbishment of independent lab air-handling system
• Installation of two addition Analab® A3 hotplate, one Analab® A4 hotplate, and two bench-top ~A3 ceramic hotplates for general use
• Automated and real-time pressure, temperature and humidity (P-T-H₂O) control
• UV-tinted exterior windows to reduce photo-dissociation of acids and plastics, and for tighter temperature control (it is the tropics after all!)
• Installation of three ductless laminar flow chemical workstations (two AirClean® 1.2m stations; one TopAir® XL™ 1.5m station)
• Installation of one ductless laminar flow balance enclosure (AirClean® 0.9m station)
• Venturi-driven vacuum system; two vacuum boxes (Triskem®) for enhanced flow rate ion exchange chromatography (IEC)
• Two custom-built, passively exhausted experiment reagent chambers
• Two custom-built, two-tier passive extraction chemical chambers
• A custom-built, positive-pressure HEPA-filtered enclosure for the AAC’s Thermo Scientific™ CETAC™ ASX-560 autosampler (coupled to the AAC’s Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ TQ ICP-MS)
• An ESI SC-2DX autosampler with a custom-built, positive-pressure HEPA-filtered enclosure, for coupling to the AAC’s Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ TQ ICP-MS and Thermo Scientific ™ Neptune MC-ICP-MS
• A laminar flow, positive-pressure clean bench for sample preparation in the AAC’s ICP instrument room, directly adjacent to its Thermo Scientific ™ Neptune MC-ICP-MS
• A Thermo Scientific™ Dionex™ ICS-6000 High Pressure Ion Chromatography (HPIC) system installed in the AAC’s ICP instrument room (automated element purification of various elements for isotope analyses), with online coupling capability to the Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ ICP-MS and Thermo Scientific™ Neptune™ MC-ICP-MS
• Refurbishment of Milli-Q® Direct-8™ Ultrapure Water System, and installation in our AAC’s ICP instrument room for use with all ICP-OES and ICP-MS instrumentation.
• Installation of state-of-the-art multi-pronged Milli-Q® IQ 7015 high capacity Ultrapure Water System in the IsoTropics Lab, including: one IQ Element dispenser for highest purity needs (>18.2 MW/cm), one Type 1 (18.2 MW.cm) dispenser, and one Type 1/2 (15 18.2 MW.cm) dispenser

AirClean™ Laminar Flow Hood

Passive Extraction Unit - custom built

TopAir™ Laminar Flow Hood

Milli-Q Purified Water

Researchers within the Isotropics Geochemistry Laboratory have access to a wide range of instruments that are housed within the adjacent Advanced Analytical Centre. The majority of our analytical work is focused through the ICP (Induction Coupled Plasma) Instrument Lab, where we operate the following instruments:

Major & Trace Elements

• Agilent™ 5900 ICP-OES coupled to an Agilent™ SPS 4 Autosampler (Major elements via solution)
• Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ TQ-ICP-MS coupled to a Thermo Scientific™ CETAC™ ASX-560 Autosampler (Trace elements vis solution)
• Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ RQ-ICP-MS to a Teledyne Photon Machines™ Analyte G2 Laser (Trace elements vis laser ablation)

Isotopic Characterisation

• Thermo Scientific ™ Neptune™ MC-ICP-MS (Radiogenic & novel stable isotopes)   -  Depending on the application the Neptune can be operated with a number of introduction systems:

• Wet Plasma: Using a double pass cyclonic spray chamber coupled to an Elemental Scientific (ESI™) SC-2 DX Autosampler
• Dry Plasma: Using an CETAC™ Aridus 3™ desolvator coupled to Cetac™ ASX-112FR Autosampler
• Laser Ablation: By connecting the Teledyne Photon Machines™ Analyte G2 online to the Thermo Scientific ™ Neptune™ MC-ICP-MS

Analyte Separation Capabilities

The Isotropics Geochemistry Laboratory also has two recently installed instruments (2021) to aid in the purification of analytes from interfering matrix elements.

• Thermo Scientific™ Dionex™ ICS-6000 High Pressure Ion Chromatography (HPIC) System (automated isolated or sequential separation of numerous elements for subsequent elemental/isotopic analyses)
• Coy Laboratories Type B Vinyl Anaerobic Chamber (This chamber maintains an oxygen-free environment to aid in the preferential dissolution of specific minerals)