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Facilities

The Environmental Science Center of Yale's School of the Environment is a modern, well-equipped laboratory that is active in many areas of environmental biogeochemistry. Some of the relevant instruments that are available include:

Metals/Cations

Perkin Elmer ICP-MS with HPLC interface
Perkin-Elmer Optima 3000 simultaneous ICP-AES
BAS CV-50W voltammetry system and RDE-1 rotating electrode
Brinkmann automated voltammetry system with rotating disk and hanging mercury drop electrodes
Tekran 2600 automated aqueous mercury analyzer
Tekran 2537A automated air mercury analyzer
Milestone DMA automated solids mercury analyzer
Brooks-Rand methyl mercury analyzer
Perkin Elmer Model 3300 dual-beam atomic absorption spectrophotometer with graphite furnace

Organic Carbon

Shimadzu TOC-V organic carbon analyzer
CE Elantech Flash EA1112 CNS analyzer

Chromatography

Dionex DX 500 high-performance liquid chromatograph with post column reagent unit and multiple detectors (conductivity, electrochemical, UV-visible, fluorescent)
Agilent G1800C gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer with OI Analytical 4560 purge-and-trap system
Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph with OI Analytical 5380 pulsed-FPD detector and Agilent ECD detector
Hewlett-Packard 5890 gas chromatograph with FID/TCD detectors
SRI GC 310 gas chromatograph with FID detector
Dionex DX 300 ion chromatograph

Radioactivity

Canberra gamma spectrometry systems with low-energy germanium detectors (both planar and well-type) housed in a low-background shields and cryostats
Canberra dual alpha spectrometry system
Beckman Coulter LS6500 scintillation counter

Miscellaneous

Brinkmann Metrohm automated titrator
Spectronics 501 scanning UV-Vis spectrometer
Astoria 2 micro-segmented 2-channel flow analyzer

Most instruments are equipped with autosamplers for maximum sample throughput. Sample digestion options include a 54 sample, metal-free, block digester, a 12 sample MARS 3 automated microwave digestion system with solvent reduction unit, and a UV oxidation system accepting up to 8 simultaneous samples. The analytical laboratory is supervised by a full-time lab manager.

Benoit operates a 200 ft² Class-100 positive-pressure clean room dedicated to the analysis of trace materials. The filtered-air environment within the clean lab contains fewer than 100 dust particles (> 0.5 mm) per ft³ (conventional lab air typically contains ³100,000/ft³). The clean lab also features an all-polypropylene, HEPA-filtered clean fume hood, two laminar-flow clean benches (one Class 10), an inert atmosphere glove box, and activated-carbon air filtration to facilitate low-level Hg analysis. There are capabilities to monitor both total particulate matter and vapor phase Hg in the clean room air. The pressure differentials between the clean room, changing room, and main lab are monitored continuously. In addition, the laboratory has all the ordinary necessities such as a research-quality pure water supply, hoods, balances, ovens, furnaces, incubators, lyophilizers, refrigerated high capacity centrifuge, and the like.

The PI has four ISCO 3700 programmable autosamplers and five YSI 6920 and one YSI 6600 water quality analyzer/data loggers capable of measuring and recording pH, conductivity, DO, temperature, turbidity, chlorophyll, and water depth continuously for periods as long as a month. Yale has a wide variety of sampling equipment including a 23’ Parker SportCabin cruiser and a number of small boats and motors.

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