RTI Act
Environmental Hydrology Group (EHG)
IRMS Laboratory
Model/supplier: Elementar isoprime precisION IRMS, isoFLOW, and vario PYRO cube
Our laboratory houses an Elementar isoprime precisION, a high-precision isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) designed to measure natural abundances of light stable isotopes, including hydrogen (2H/1H), oxygen (18O/16O), carbon (13C/12C), nitrogen (15N/14N), and sulphur (34S/32S). The system, equipped with an integrated continuous flow interface (centrION), can be coupled with various peripherals, enabling the analysis of diverse sample types such as solids, liquids, gases, and compound-specific analyses. Typical laboratory samples include water, solid carbonate, sediments, soils, and other materials.
The IRMS is coupled with two peripherals:
- Headspace analyzer (isoFLOW): Water isotope analysis via the headspace analyzer involves equilibrating a water sample with mixed gas in a sealed vial. The equilibrated gas is introduced into the IRMS in continuous flow mode to measure H and O isotopic compositions. It also allows analysis of C and O isotopic composition in bulk carbonate solids, and C isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) by reacting them with phosphoric acid to release CO2 in the headspace, which is then introduced in the IRMS for analysis.
- Elemental Analyzer (vario PYRO cube): The Elemental Analyzer with an automated solid sampler combusts solid inorganic or organic samples, extracts gas phases, and introduces purified gases into the IRMS in continuous flow mode for stable isotope ratio measurements of C, N, and S.
In-house reference standards calibrated against international reference materials are used to achieve the accuracy and precision of our measurements. The precision of stable isotope ratios in water samples is better than 0.1‰ for O and 1.5% for H, while in carbonate samples it is better than 0.1‰ for C and 0.12‰ for O. For homogeneous combustible samples, the precision is typically better than 0.12‰ for C, 0.15‰ for N, and 0.2‰ for S.
Applications span across various fields, including Hydrology, Paleoclimatology, Geochemistry, Oceanography, and more.
Contact:
Prasenjit Das
Scientist-In-Charge
T: 0471-2511605