The Non-Traditional Isotope Laboratory is hosted in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, College of the Environment. It includes one >1500 sq ft class 10, 000 clean lab for sample preparation and two climate controlled rooms for a New Wave UP-193 nm laser ablation unit, a Nu Plasma MC-ICPMS and a Nu Plasma II MC-ICPMS.

Instruments

The Nu Plasma II MC-ICPMS is the most updated version of Nu Plasma high resolution MC-ICPMS. It is equipped with 16 faraday cups and 3 electron multipliers, with enhanced sensitivity interface. It is also equipped with a high abundance retardation lens associated with the central ion-counting channel and variable slits for high resolution scanning. The sample introduction system includes an ASX-260 autosampler from Cetac, an ESI Apex desolvation nebulizer system and a New Wave UP-193 nm laser ablation unit.

Nu HR MC-ICPMS [left] and Nu II MC-ICPMS [right]

Clean Lab

Clean conditions are essential to sample preparation, especially of those precious extraterrestrial materials such as meteorites and lunar samples.  The clean lab contains two vented acid hoods, one wash down perchloric acid hood and four vented laminar flow hoods providing class 100 air, in addition to one Mili-Q water purification system and two Savillex DST-100 acid distillation systems.

Laminar flow hoods [left] and DST-100 acid distillation system [right]