Our Equipment | Marine Biological Laboratory

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 “routine” work as follows:

ISOPRIME CF-IRMS with Triple Collector + D/H Collector

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 δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, or δ²H 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

Europa 20-20 CF-IRMS

System 2: Europa 20-20 CF-IRMS interfaced with the Europa ANCA-SL elemental analyzer. This system has been continuously producing high quality δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C and δ³⁴S (and N, C and S concentration) data on bulk solid materials since 1997.

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.