MRI: Acquistion of Femtosecond UV-Laser Ablation System for Elemental & Isotopic Mapping by Hyphenated Sector Field ICP-MS

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

CBET-0821304GoldsteinThis NSF Major Research Instrumentation project requests funding for a femtosecond laser ablation (LA) solid sampling system for analytical coupling ("hyphenation") to a newly-acquired magnetic sector field inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometer (SF-ICP-MS). The grant hyphenated LA-SF-ICP-MS system is intended for high-resolution two-dimensional elemental and isotopic profiling in a diverse range of materials and research applications. The system will greatly expand the analytical capabilities of the recently-established Center for Biometals and Metallomics (CBM), a unique multidisciplinary analytical facility at the Boston University School of Medicine and College of Engineering. The CBM is the only dedicated facility of its kind in the nation. The centerpiece of the facility is a stateof- the-art SF-ICP-MS instrument acquired through a Shared Instrument Grant funded by the National Center for Research Resources, NIH. This powerful instrument is the gold standard for definitive ultra-trace elemental and isotopic analyses in a wide variety of matrices. Deployment of the proposed hyphenated analytical instrumentation will provide researchers locally and throughout the region with an unparalleled analytical resource that will accelerate lead-edge discovery in a wide range of fields.Funds are requested for instrument acquisition to hyphenate the SF-ICP-MS instrument with a powerful and complementary technology, high-resolution laser ablation solid sampling. The proposed system couples definitive elemental and isotopic analysis with high-resolution femtosecond laser-assisted spatial sampling for wide-ranging application involving a variety of material substrates. The application proposes to address new questions with new technologies coupled in new ways and capitalizes on presently available analytical capabilities and interdisciplinary expertise. Collaborations that will benefit through use of the hyphenated analytical instrumentation include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Museum of Ireland, Harvard and Boston University Schools of Public Health, and the US Geological Service, amongst others. Access will be open to qualified students, staff, and researchers throughout the region who require this advanced analytical instrumentation for scientific inquiry. Senior scientists, postgraduate researchers, graduate students, undergraduates, and facility staff will be directly involved in utilizing the requested instrumentation. The hyphenated system will be managed as a shared-collaborative user resource allied to other significant institutional analytical facilities, including the Boston University Mass Spectrometry Resource. A strong emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary interaction as well as education and training. Facility staff will develop training courses, facilitate analytical protocol development, assist collaborating scientists with experimental design and execution, and organize internal and external conferences to promote the use of advanced mass spectrometry instrumentation and allied hyphenated technologies for application in a wide array of research programs and applications. Educational activities at the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels will be integrated with ongoing analytical operations to facilitate both formal and informal interaction amongst students, trainees, senior investigators, and resource staff. Regional, national, and international scientific exchange is already operative and is expected to expand with project funding. Novel utilization, pilot experimentation and technology development will be encouraged to open new and expanded research opportunities using LA-ICP-MS instrumentation.