Acquisition of an isotope ratio mass spectrometer for continuous flow analyses of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine isotopic compositions of organic compounds

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0318458KenigThis grant supports acquisition of a new stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (SIRMS) in the Environmental Geochemistry Isotope Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago that would be coupled with an existing gas chromatograph and high temperature pyrolysis system for compound specific stable isotopic analysis (CSIA) of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine in organic matter (OM) as tracers of microbial geochemical pathways and identification of specific sources of complex mixtures of organic matter. CSIA has great potential as a highly sensitive proxy of paleoenvironment conditions at the time of OM deposition and as a method of unraveling the geochemical history (i.e., redox conditions) experienced by the OM since deposition. Areas of research that will benefit from the new SIRMS include paleoceanographic proxy studies of the water column chemistry of Mesozoic seas, paleoclimate/paleoecologic investigations of perennially ice-covered lakes and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, and environmental studies of the fate and transport of PCBs in groundwater.***