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Reston Stable Isotope Laboratory Isotope Fractionation Project

RSIL Home > Isotope Fractionation Project > Equipment and Facilities

Equipment & Facilities

Delta V Plus: continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer, capable of analyzing carbon dioxide, gaseous nitrogen, gaseous oxygen, and sulfur dioxide. Peripherals include a Carlo Erba elemental analyzer for analysis of carbon-, nitrogen-, and sulfur-bearing materials and a modified GasBench for nitrogen and oxygen isotope analysis by denitrifier method.
Delta Plus: continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer, capable of analyzing carbon dioxide, gaseous nitrogen, gaseous oxygen, sulfur dioxide. Peripherals include a Carlo Erba elemental analyzer for analysis of carbon-, nitrogen-, and sulfur-bearing materials and an Aurora 1030 DIC/DOC system for analysis of carbon isotope in dissolved inorganics and dissolved organics.
Two Thermo-Finnigan Delta XP: with dual inlet and continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometers, capable of analyzing gaseous hydrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and/or other gases. Peripherals include TC/EA introduction systems for analysis of oxygen-, nitrogen-, and hydrogen-bearing substances, a GCC system, and a dissolved gas sampler for oxygen and nitrogen isotope analysis.
Finnigan MAT 251: dual inlet mass spectrometer, capable of analyzing carbon dioxide, gaseous nitrogen, nitrous dioxide, and gaseous hydrogen for stable isotopic composition (used mainly for gaseous nitrogen). Modified by adding sample and standard mercury pistons for improved accuracy at low abundances.
DuPont 21-491: double-focusing mass spectrometer with electric sector with dual inlet and double collector. Capable of analyzing carbon dioxide, gaseous nitrogen, gaseous oxygen, nitrous dioxide, etc. Used primarily for carbon dioxide from water and carbonate sample preparation. Peripherals include an automated 20-port manifold and a 48-port VG Micromass oxygen-18 water equilibration system.
VG Micromass 602: dual inlet hydrogen mass spectrometer. Peripherals include an automated 60-port air-bath manifold for gaseous hydrogen-water equilibration.
Liquid-water Isotope Analyzer (DLT-100), Los Gatos Research: provides isotope ratio measurements by laser absorption spectroscopy (off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy), capable of analyzing liquid-water for direct ²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O isotope ratio measurements.
Vacuum lines: carbonate/water extraction line, "Craig-type" carbon dioxide-methane line, reference gas-standard preparation line with 400 split capacity, and other miscellaneous preparation lines with Toepler pumps, GCs, etc.