Plasma Analytical Laboratory (KU-PAL)


The KU-PAL, maintained by Dr Gwen Macpherson, is located in 105 and 105A Lindley Hall. This facility includes a HEPA-filtered air climate controlled instrument room and a HEPA-filtered air preparatory laboratory. The laboratory has a Barnstead Ropure ST reverse-osmosis water purification system, a class-100 HEPA-filtered air laminar work station, class-100 HEPA-filtered air polypropylene exhausting good, and a polypropylene wet-process work station.

The instrument room contains a JY138 Ultrace ICP-AES (inductively-coupledplasma, atomic-emission spectrometer, 1996) used for rapid and accurate determinations of major elements in dissolved rocks and in water, and a laser-ablation microprobe (LAM), the Merchantek LUV266x laser ablation microprobe (2000), which is a front-end sampling device for the ICPMS. The LAM allows direct ablation of solids for investigation of small-scale geochemical variations such as are found in zoned crystal and cements, and a VG PQIIXS Q-ICP-MS (1996) used for determinations of trace elements in dissolved rocks and in water.