Electric pulse disaggregator and hydroseparator for micromineral research

对太阳系和地球大陆、海洋和早期生命形式起源的革命性见解，正在通过测量岩石和陨石中保存在非常小的、几乎是灰尘大小的矿物晶体中的时间和环境信息而获得。这些领域新的和未来研究的关键是在不破坏或污染的情况下分离这些微小的颗粒。超低污染矿物分离传统上是一个艰苦的过程，涉及有毒重液体和机械破碎，颚式破碎机和盘式米尔斯需要不断拆卸和清洁。破碎过程也会破坏微妙的矿物形态和形状，否则会提供有关矿物生长速率和行星环境的新信息。最近在商业上开发了更快、更清洁和危险性更低（即没有硅尘、重液体）的水基方法。这些仪器利用电脉冲使样品沿着矿物颗粒边界破碎或分解，最终释放出头发丝那么宽的晶体。该请求是为了最近可获得的、美国制造的SPARK-3电脉冲解聚装置和配套的HS-11水力分离器系统。这两个单元联合工作，无需研磨或重液即可进行微量矿物分离，速度比传统方法快约5倍。该设备将填补UWO和合作机构（滑铁卢大学，多伦多大学）现有矿物分离设备阵列的关键空白，并通过NSERC以前支持的微矿物成像设备（SEM阴极发光检测器; Moser等人，这些设备的处理速度和灵活性将在回答一些基本问题的国际竞赛中提供显著的优势，这些基本问题包括：地球上的海洋和生命形式是什么时候开始存在的？

Revolutionary insights into the origins of the solar system and Earth's continents, oceans and early life forms is being gained from measuring the time and environmental information preserved in very small, almost dust-sized, mineral crystals in rocks and meteorites. Key to new and future research in these areas is the isolation of these tiny grains without destruction or contamination. Ultra low contamination mineral separation has traditionally been a painstaking process involving toxic heavy liquids and mechanical crushing with jaw crushers and disc mills requiring constant disassembly and cleaning. The crushing process can also destroy delicate mineral forms and shapes that otherwise provide new information on mineral growth rates and planetary environments. Faster, cleaner and less hazardous (i.e. no silica dust, heavy liquids) water-based methods have recently been developed commercially. These use electric pulses to shatter or disaggregate samples along mineral grain boundaries, eventually freeing crystals as wide as a human hair. This request is for a recently available, Canadian-made SPARK-3 Electric Pulse Disaggregation unit and accompanying HS-11 Hydroseparator system. The two units work in combination to perform micromineral separation without milling or heavy liquids at a rate approximately 5 times faster than with conventional methods. The equipment will fill a critical gap in the existing array of mineral separation equipment at UWO and partner institutions (University of Waterloo, University of Toronto) and result in increased throughput and research productivity with micromineral imaging equipment previously supported by NSERC (SEM-cathodoluminescence detector; Moser et al., NSERC-RTI 2006) and CFI (Moser, 2008).The processing speed and flexibility of the equipment will offer a significant advantage in the international race to answer fundamental questions such as; when did Earth's oceans and life forms first exist?