Laboratory

The Environmental Organic Geochemistry lab is a state of the art facility for the extraction, purification and analysis of organic compounds from environmental samples. Support for the development of this lab has come from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Innovation Trust, the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada, and McMaster University.

The lab is equipped with an array of instruments for the extraction, purification, and analysis of environmental organic samples.

LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS

 

The lab is equipped with an Agilent Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) for compound identification and quantification, as equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID).
Identification, quantification and fraction collection of larger and more polar compounds, including archeal lipids and dipicolynic acid biomarkers, is done on an Agilent 1200 series High Performance Liquid Chromatograph coupled to single quad MS and fluorescence detectors.
Compound specific stable isotopic analysis of organic compounds and inorganic gases is done on two a Finnigan MAT Delta plus Gas Chromatograph – Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (GC/IRMS) systems.
The lab is equipped with a second Agilent Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) for compound identification and quantification that reaches lower detection limits to analyse lower-concentration samples.
MARSx microwave system
Compact freeze-drier