Stable isotopes — Instrumentation and materials

Materials

Materials we analyse include:

• Waters: ²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions and soil/plant materials
• Carbonates: ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of microfossil and other pure calcium carbonates, impure carbonates and aqueous bicarbonate
• Silicates and phosphates: ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ³⁰Si/²⁸Si of rock minerals, biogenic silica and tooth/bone materials
• Organic materials: ²H/¹H, ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, and ³⁴S/³²S of bulk organic materials (plants, soils, etc.)
• Nitrogen and sulphur compounds: ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ³⁴S/³²S, and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of nitrate, ammonium, sulphate, sulphide, nitrous oxide and nitrogen gas, and organic nitrogen and sulphur
• Phosphate: ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of phosphate from soils, sediments and teeth
• Methane: ¹³C/¹²C and ²H/¹H in gas and water samples
• Carbon dioxide: ¹³C/¹²C in gas samples and headspace gases

Instrumentation

Waters & dissolved inorganic carbon

• Isoprime with EuroPyrOH δ²H in marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions, soil/plant materials
• Isoprime 100 with Aquaprep δ¹⁸O in marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions, soil/plant materials
• IsoPrime PrecisION with isoFLOW δ¹³C of dissolved inorganic carbon
• Thermo Finnigan Delta V Plus with Gas Bench II δ²H and δ¹⁸O in waters, and δ¹³C of dissolved inorganic carbon

Carbonates

• Isoprime 100 with Multiprep δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of single microfossils
• GV Isoprime with Multiprep δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of microfossil, speleothem and other pure calcium carbonates
• VG Optima δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of impure carbonates and aqueous bicarbonate

Silicates

• Thermo Finnigan MAT 253 δ¹⁸O and δ³⁰Si of rock minerals, biogenic silica, and tooth/bone materials

Organics

• Isoprime PrecisION with Elementar vario ISOTOPE cube for δ¹³C and C/N of bulk organic materials
• Isoprime with EuroEA3000 δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of bulk organic materials
• Isoprime PrecisION with Elementar PyroCube δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O, and δ³⁴S of bulk organic materials
• Dennis Leigh Technology IRMS with Carlo Erba NA1500 δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of ¹³C– or 15N–labelled bulk organic materials
• Thermo Finnigan Delta Plus XP with Elementar Pyrocube δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C, and elemental concentrations of bulk organic materials
• Thermo Finnigan Delta V Plus with TC Elemental Analyser δ²H and δ¹⁸O analysis of bulk organic materials. Equipped with a Eurovector Uni–Prep heatable/pumped autosampler for the calculation of exchangeable hydrogen

Environmental & archaeological tracers

• Thermo Finnigan DeltaplusXL with Flash/TC Elemental Analyser δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S, δ¹⁸O of nitrate, ammonium, sulphate, sulphide, organic N and S, as well as δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O, δ³⁴S of bulk organic materials
• Thermo Finnigan Delta V with IsoLink Elemental Analyser very high precision analysis on a variety of matrices for δ²H, δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S, including triple analysis of CNS on small sample sizes at high precision
• Thermo Finnigan Delta V Plus with IsoLink Elemental Analyser triple analysis of δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C, and δ³⁴S of sub–mg bulk animal tissues
• Elementar VisION with Pyrocube Elemental Analyser for triple analysis of δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C, and δ³⁴S of sub–mg bulk animal tissues

Methane & gas tracers

• Sercon HS2025 with Cyroprep δ¹³C and δ²H of methane from high to atmospheric concentrations in gas and water samples
• GV Isoprime with Isoprime Trace Gas Pre–concentrators δ¹³C–CO₂, δ¹³C–CH₄, δ¹⁵N–N₂O and δ¹⁸O–N₂O in original gas samples or obtained from dissolved molecules such as nitrates, inorganic carbon etc