Edinburgh Centre for Advanced Multi-Elemental Analysis (AMEA)

我们目前的设施有两台仪器，可测定水溶液和有机溶液中一系列元素的浓度。这些仪器是：（i）最近购买的电感耦合等离子体-光发射光谱仪（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）。这些仪器都有一个共同的“电感耦合等离子体”，它的作用就像一个非常高的温度“火焰”，并将样品溶液中的元素转化为原子或离子，可以用光谱法检测（通过发射光谱（OES）或质荷比（MS）），然后通过比较检测器信号与标准溶液的信号进行定量。我们需要新的仪器，因为目前的ICP-Q-MS无法修复，因此当它发生故障时，它将不得不退役。这就意味着，如果不借助外部机构或商业实验室进行昂贵的分析，我们的一些正在进行的研究和咨询项目就无法完成。我们现在需要更先进的仪器，因为我们成熟的用户群体不断发展研究目标，我们目前正在现有仪器的极限下工作。特别是，我们需要能够在更广泛的样品类型（例如，含有相对大量的盐或有机化合物的溶液）中对极低浓度（例如，万亿分之一至四分之一）的元素进行可靠的测量。目前，这些类型的解决方案会导致我们的ICP-Q-MS变得不太灵敏，也会损坏仪器的部件，包括检测器。新的ICP-Q-MS仪器通过在样品溶液进入检测器之前使用氩气稀释样品溶液来解决这个问题，因此不会发生灵敏度损失。这些新一代仪器也更容易操作，我们将能够培训研究人员不仅设置和运行我们现有的ICP-OES，而且还可以设置和运行新的ICP-Q-MS。例如，中到高水平将是前者的最佳选择。我们的用户也希望分析更广泛的元素，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），这些信号不能使用ICP-OES或ICP-Q-MS去除。例如，在生物样品中，磷和硫等元素的含量极低，而硫也存在于正在开发的新型生物燃料中。以取代柴油。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“三重四极杆”（ICP-QQQ-MS）的ICP仪器中使用第一检测器、反应池和第二检测器的组合来实现的。一个高度熟练的操作员将帮助研究人员识别和消除来自样品其他成分的信号。其他元素如钒（用于新电池）和稀土元素（用于计算机、照相机、汽车和飞机等）随着我们支持对恢复这些重要资源的可持续方法的研究，将更容易衡量。最后，我们需要对房间进行一些调整，以容纳新的仪器。我们希望将两个较小的房间合并为一个较大的房间，以便在爱丁堡高级多元素分析中心（AMEA）的一个位置拥有三台仪器（ICP-OES，ICP-Q-MS和ICP-QQQ-MS），并由我们的研究技术员Lorna Eades博士提供支持。升级的空调系统和额外/升级的废气抽取系统将降低灰尘和噪音水平。

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.