Our Equipment

Two Continuous Flow-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (CF-IRMS) systems are housed in Room 333 of the C.V. Starr Building. These include a GV Instruments Isoprime mass spectrometer that is interfaced with a GC-combustion/purification system for compound specific isotope analyses and our workhorse Europa 20-20 mass spectrometer interfaced with an automated combustion/purification unit.  The two systems are presently configured for 鈥渞outine鈥 work as follows:

System 1: ISOPRIME CF-IRMS with Triple Collector + D/H Collector, and Reference Gas Box interfaced with:

Agilent Technologies Model 6890 Gas Chromatograph (GC) configured with either combustion or thermal decomposition ("pyrolysis") reactors for compound-specific 未13C, 未15N, or 未2H analysis of derivatized organic compounds such as fatty acids and amino acids.

ISOPRIME CF-IRMS interfaced with GV Instruments Furnace Unit and Agilent Technologies GC.jpg
ISOPRIME CF-IRMS interfaced with GV Instruments Furnace Unit and Agilent Technologies GC

 

System 2: Europa 20-20 CF-IRMS interfaced with the Europa ANCA-SL elemental analyzer.  This system has been continuously producing high quality 未15N, 未13C and 未34S (and N, C and S concentration) data on bulk solid materials since 1997.

EUROPA 20-20 CF-IRMS interfaced with ANCA-SL Purification Unit
EUROPA 20-20 CF-IRMS interfaced with ANCA-SL Purification Unit

Also housed in the lab are various glass vacuum preparation/purification lines, a glass-blowing bench for the fabrication of and repairs to glass vacuum lines,  a tube furnace for refurbishing our reduction tubes, a drying oven, and two balances for precisely weighing stable isotope samples.