Procedures

General Instructions

Please contact UASIL before sending samples. All samples should be sent with a clearly defined sample identification number. Please include a list of your samples that you want analyzed.

Samples names ideally have basic characters. Avoid sample names with characters such as “/”, “+”, “µ”. Numbers, letters and underscores are great.

Filters for analysis by elemental analyzer and continuous flow mass spectrometer

We recommend using quartz filters for collecting your samples and then trimming away the parts of the filter that do not contain the collected material. Many have contacted us about running samples collected on glass fiber filters after they have already prepared them. We cannot run glass fiber filters as they will melt at the temperature of the combustion column in our EA (quartz will not), resulting in both unusable results and an unusable analyzer.

Organic Samples

If you will be weighing your own samples, all organic samples should be dried and ground to pass a 40 mesh screen. Sample heterogeneity is one of the most common causes of “noise” in isotopic analysis, so grind and thoroughly mix each sample as well as possible.

Pure Gasses

All pure gas samples should be cryogenically purified before sample submission. Please send samples in 6 mm Pyrex tubes at least 8″ long. Please contact us for sample amounts needed for each isotope.