A sequential sample digestion platform for understanding radiological, environmental, industrial, and geochemical processes

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The objective of this grant application is to provide researchers and users of the Characterization of Emerging Inorganic Pollutants/Indicators platform (CEIPIP), with a tool to enable to digest all samples types in a reproductible, complete, and coherent manner for inorganic analysis. The CEIPIP has already an extensive characterization platform with 2 ICP-MS/MS and 2 ICP-OES, but the sample preparation equipment that was purchased at its inception are now either impossible to repair (as parts are not supported by the vendors) or significantly damaged (which results in a high downtime). With over 50 different highly qualified personnel (HQP) currently using this instrumentation to support their active research, the sample preparation is the Achilles heel of the CEIPIP and has severely restricted our ability to analyze samples for their elemental compositions, especially for refractory elements or complex matrices (nuclear and e-wastes, peculiar sulfur deposit). In addition, as we are interested in the speciation and quantification of ultratraces, enrichment via chromatography or extraction is customary to digest samples. Thus, there is an URGENT need to provide the HQP of the CEIPIP with a robust sample digestion platform that is suited to the nature of the projects they are actively pursuing. For this reason, we are requesting three pieces of equipment (Focused Infrared Digester[FID], Microwave Digestion unit[MWD], and closed-vessel evaporator[CVE]) that can be coupled sequentially to provide a much-needed sample preparation capacity. Two of the requested equipment (FID and MWD) were part of the equipment previously available to CEIPIP users, but the obsolete and worn-out state of the decade-old equipment is jeopardizing our ability to perform state-of-the-art research related to inorganic constituents. Absence of such instrumentation strongly hinders the progression of our HQP and limited their capacity to generate data required to complete their research. Obviously, this platform will also be made available to all others graduate students and postdocs of the Science and Engineering faculty (over 300 researchers) as it has already been the case with the CEIPIP equipment. As many of our projects involves time and environment-sensitive species and nuclear materials, there is no possible alternative as the transportation and analysis of such substances is strongly limited in Canada, thus hindering our capacity to rely on external resources for the preparation of samples. Having this instrument is also very important for the training of HQP and for their future careers in analytical chemistry, nuclear and environmental sciences, earth sciences.