Microwave digestion system

需要资金购买最先进的微波消解系统，该系统将用于在高压下将沉积物、岩石和生物样品在热的酸性鸡尾酒中定量溶解。这项技术是现代地球化学中的首选方法，通过一系列技术产生适合化学分析的溶液。在我们的案例中，我们将使用最近安装的内部电感耦合等离子体质谱仪来分析各种微量元素的浓度。微波单元将大量用于支持至少四名教员及其研究团队的研究，其中包括博士后研究员、研究生和大四(荣誉)本科生。将依赖该仪器的一系列项目包括：a)根据对海底沉积沉积的详细多元素分析，研究过去的气候历史和海洋环流；b)利用实地收集的岩石样本调查地球内部的化学和物理；c)利用在海底和陆地上现已暴露的以前的洋壳序列收集的岩石和钻芯样本，研究控制热量和质量从地幔向大洋中脊的地壳和海洋转移的过程；以及d)调查人类对河流和湖泊中元素自然循环的影响，包括研究汞的分布和控制汞的过程。新设备将取代老化的、偶尔发生故障的仪器，该仪器造成了严重的安全问题，这是一个主要的担忧，因为我们在消化中使用的是危险的、高度腐蚀性的酸(例如氢氟酸)。

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.