MRI: Acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES) for a Diverse Range of Scientific Applications in Greater Saint Louis

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With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) and Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities Programs, Professor Paul Bracher from Saint Louis University and colleagues Daniel Warren and Elizabeth Hasenmueller have acquired an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). This instrument is a necessary analytical tool used to identify and quantify metals in solutions. Consequently, it has broad use in applications such as analysis of biological solutions, water supplies and watersheds, food production and chemical reactions. The instrument is also used to train undergraduate and graduate students in this basic tool. It enables hands-on citizen-science activities such as analysis of local water supplies and is made available to other researchers beyond the St. Louis University community. The proposal is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels, especially by researchers at St. Louis university in areas such as: (a) prospective roles of inorganic cations in the origin of life, (b) the geochemistry of surface waters, shallow groundwaters, and soils, (c) ion-exchange in mineralized tissue with physiological pH regulation, (d) earth science to understand water transformations in the critical zone at the interface between water, air, soil and rock, (e) transport of sodium contamination from road salt, (f) wastewater contamination from sewer overflows using tracers, and (g) how mineralized tissues buffer perturbations to acid-base homeostasis in reptiles, amphibians and mammals.