Supply of an Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometer

The ICP-OES will be purchased to aid chemical analyses in conjunction with the NERC funded project JET - “Integrated Understanding of the Early Jurassic Earth System and Timescale”. Analyses will be performed on fossil shell materials and rocks to evaluate palaeoenvironmental parameters recorded in these geomaterials.

Fossil materials that will be analysed in conjunction with the JET project comprise calcite. For the understanding of the preservation of these shell materials and the palaeoenvironmental information recorded in them, concentrations of Mg, Mn, Fe and Sr are of the greatest interest. The limited variabitility of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios within the fossils makes it necessary to measure these ratios at great reproducibility (~ 1 % 2sd) in order to achieve a sufficient signal to noise ratio. Mn and Fe concentrations in the shell material are critical to ascertain good fossil preservation and minor differences (in the range of a few µg/g in the calcite) can be meaningful for such interpretation. Because of contraints on material availability the instrument needs to be able to quantify Mn and Fe concentrations in solutions at levels of ca. 1 ng/g.

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