Edinburgh Centre for Advanced Multi-Elemental Analysis (AMEA)

我们目前的设备有两台仪器，可以测定水溶液和有机溶液中一系列元素的浓度。它们是(I)最近购买的电感耦合等离子体-光学发射光谱仪(ICP-OES)；和(Ii)已有13年历史的电感耦合等离子体单四极杆质谱仪(ICP-Q-MS)。这些仪器有一个共同的“感应耦合等离子体”，它的作用就像一个非常高温的‘火焰’，将样品溶液中的元素转化为原子或离子，可以用光谱(发射光谱(OES)或质荷比(MS))进行检测，然后通过将检测器信号与标准溶液的信号进行比较来进行量化。我们需要新的仪器，因为目前的电感耦合等离子体质谱无法修复，因此当它发生故障时，它将不得不退役。这将意味着我们正在进行的几个研究和咨询项目如果不求助于外部组织或商业实验室的昂贵分析，就无法完成。我们现在需要更先进的工具，因为我们成熟的用户群体不断发展研究目标，而我们目前正在努力达到现有工具所能达到的极限。特别是，我们需要能够可靠地测量在更广泛的样本类型(例如，含有相对大量的盐或有机化合物的溶液)中存在的极低浓度的元素(例如，万亿分之一到万亿分之一)的元素。目前，这些类型的溶液会导致我们的电感耦合等离子体质谱变得不那么灵敏，还会损坏仪器的部件，包括检测器。新的电感耦合等离子体质谱仪器绕过了这个问题，在样品溶液进入检测器之前使用氩气稀释，因此不会出现灵敏度损失。这些新一代仪器也更易于操作，我们将能够培训研究人员不仅建立和运行我们现有的ICP-OES，而且还可以建立和运行新的ICP-Q-MS。我们将提供关于哪种仪器最适合于确定其样品中元素范围的浓度的建议，例如，中高级将是前者的最佳选择。我们的用户还希望分析更广泛的元素，但我们目前受到限制，因为存在干扰(与我们想要测量的元素一致的检测器信号)，无法使用ICPOES或ICPQ-MS消除这些干扰。例如，磷和硫等元素在生物样本中的含量极低，正在开发的替代柴油的新生物燃料中也存在硫。在准确测定这些元素的浓度之前，需要一个复杂得多的“干扰消除”过程。这是通过在称为“三重四极”的电感耦合等离子体仪器(电感耦合等离子体-QQQ-MS)中使用第一检测器、反应池和第二检测器的组合来实现的。一名技术高超的操作员将帮助研究人员识别和消除来自样品中其他成分的信号。其他元素，如钒(用于新电池)和稀土元素(用于计算机、相机、汽车和飞机等)随着我们支持对回收这些重要资源的可持续方法的研究，衡量起来也会容易得多。最后，我们需要对容纳新乐器的房间进行一些调整。我们想把两个较小的房间改成一个更大的房间，这样我们就可以在一个地点-爱丁堡高级多元素分析中心(AMEA)拥有三台仪器(电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪、电感耦合等离子体质谱仪和电感耦合质谱仪)，由我们的研究技术人员洛娜·伊迪斯博士提供支持。升级的空调系统和额外/升级的废气排放系统将降低粉尘和噪音水平。

Our current facility has two instruments that determine the concentration of a range of elements in aqueous and organic solutions. These are (i) a recently purchased Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES); and (ii) a 13-year-old Inductively Coupled Plasma-Single Quadrupole-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-Q-MS). These instruments have in common an "inductively coupled plasma" which acts like a very high temperature 'flame' and transforms elements in the sample solution into atoms or ions which can be detected spectroscopically (either by emission spectrum (OES) or by mass-to-charge ratio (MS)) and then quantified by comparing the detector signal to that from standard solutions.We require new instruments because the current ICP-Q-MS cannot be repaired and so when it breaks down it will have to be decommissioned. This would mean that several of our ongoing research and consultancy projects could not be completed without resorting to expensive analysis at external organisations or commercial laboratories.We now require more advanced instruments because our well-established user community have continually evolving research goals and we are currently working at the limits of what the existing instruments can achieve. In particular, we need to be able to make reliable measurements of elements present at extremely low concentrations (for example, 1 in a trillion to 1 in a quadrillion) in a much wider range of sample types (for example, solutions which contain relatively large amounts of salts or organic compounds). Currently, these types of solution would cause our ICP-Q-MS to become less sensitive and would also damage parts of the instrument including the detector. The new ICP-Q-MS instruments get around this problem by using argon gas to dilute the sample solutions before they enter the detector and so sensitivity loss does not occur. These new generation instruments are also much easier to operate and we will be able to train researchers to set up and run not only our existing ICP-OES but the new ICP-Q-MS. We will provide advice about which instrument would be best for determining the concentrations of the range of elements in their samples, e.g. mid-to-high level will be best on the former.Our users also want to analyse a wider range of elements and we are currently restricted because there are interferences (detector signals that coincide with the element that we want to measure) that can't be removed either using the ICP-OES or ICP-Q-MS. For example, elements such as phosphorus and sulfur are present at extremely low levels in biological samples and sulfur is also present in the new biofuels that are being developed to replace diesel. A much more complex "interference removal" process is required before the concentrations of these elements can be accurately determined. This is achieved by using a combination of a first detector, a reaction cell and then a second detector in an ICP instrument called a "triple quadrupole" (ICP-QQQ-MS). A highly skilled operator will help researchers to identify and eliminate the signals which are coming from other components of their samples. Other elements such as vanadium (for use in new batteries) and the rare earth elements (for use in computers, cameras, cars and aircraft etc.) will also be much easier to measure as we support research into sustainable methods for recovering these important resources. Finally, we need to make some adjustments to the rooms that will accommodate the new instruments. We want to make two smaller rooms into one larger one that will allow us to have three instruments (ICP-OES, ICP-Q-MS and ICP-QQQ-MS) in a single location, the Edinburgh Centre for Advanced Multi-Elemental Analysis (AMEA), supported by our research technician, Dr. Lorna Eades. An upgraded air conditioning system and an additional/upgraded exhaust gas extraction system will lower dust and noise levels.