Acquisition of a HR-ICP-MS coupled to a laser ablation system for elemental and geochronological analyses in the Laboratories of Geochemistry and Isotopic Geochemistry of the DPM-IGCE, UNESP

Abstract

We are requesting a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, with a linear sector and single collector, for elemental analyses of rocks, minerals, soil, and water, as well as liquid or solid industrial rejects. The spectrometer will be incorporated into the physical infrastructure and become part of the equipment of laboratories of geochemistry and geochronology of the Department of Petrology and Metallogeny, UNESP Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences (DPM-IGCE), a configuration that will allow elemental analysis to be conducted with virtually no interference, even in complex matrices, precluding the need for prior separation and elemental concentration. To ensure resolution and avoid interference, both necessary for the application of thermochronology, we are also requesting a system of laser ablation (rapid-pulse laser) for analyses of trace elements in minerals and in aphanitic matrices, as well as for the identification of isotope pairs in minerals of composition and simple structures (apatite, zircon, etc.), for geochronological purposes. Despite the fact that the spectrometer requested has high resolution, and because it has only a single ion collector, it can be used not only in isotopic geochronological analyses but also in elemental analyses, with no loss of precision or accuracy in the results, because the memory effects expected will be considerably less pronounced than are those with multicollector systems. The DPM-IGCE laboratories have the appropriate infrastructure for the installation of the equipment. The institution currently has three laboratories, with a combined floor space of 120 m2, all maintained at positive pressure, and with class 1000 particulate filters, as well as the capacity to supply triple-distilled, sub-boiling acids and water, thereby ensuring the conditions necessary for the treatment of samples. This proposal is based on a set of projects that encompass the areas of environmental geochemistry, petrology, geochronology, trace element chemistry, and isotope analysis of minerals. The configuration of the equipment requested makes it well-suited to the needs of the universities and research institutes that make up the geosciences community within the State of São Paulo, because it can produce highly reliable elemental and isotopic geochemical data related to the principal objects of study in the projects conducted by the researchers involved. (AU)