Microwave digestion system

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Funding is requested to purchase a state-of-the-art microwave digestion system that will be used to dissolve sediment, rock, and biological samples quantitatively in a hot acid cocktail under high pressure. This technique is the method of choice in modern geochemistry and yields solutions that are suitable for chemical analysis via a range of techniques. In our case, we will analyze the concentrations of a broad range of trace elements using a recently installed, in-house Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer. The microwave unit will be heavily used to support the research of at least four faculty members and their research teams, comprising post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and senior (Honours) undergraduates. The spectrum of projects that will rely on the instrumentation include: a) studies of past climate history and ocean circulation that are based on detailed multi-element analyses of sea-floor sedimentary deposits; b) investigations of the chemistry and physics of the Earth's interior using rock samples collected in the field; c) studies of processes that control the transfer of heat and mass from the Earth's mantle into the crust and ocean at mid-ocean ridges, using rocks and drill core samples collected both on the seafloor and from former ocean-crust sequences now exposed on land; and d) investigations of the human impact on natural cycles of elements in rivers and lakes, including studies of mercury distributions and the processes that control them. The new unit will replace an aging, episodically malfunctioning instrument that poses significant safety issues, a major concern given the dangerous, highly corrosive acids (e.g. hydrofluoric acid) that we use in our digestions.