High resolution Multi Collector ICPM-MS

• In liquid (solution) mode: working
• In solid (Lase Ablation) mode: Not working (card to control light of the Camera is not working)

• In solid mode: U-Pb dating of Zircon Minerals isolated from rocks and sediments.
• In liquid mode:Capable of measuring a wide mass range of the elements (6Li-238U) for their isotopic ratio. At present 87Sr/86Sr measurement of water and rock sample are being made.

• In solid mode: Zircons are separated from the sample (~5 kg of rock/Sediment sample to get a good number) after grinding and crushing using jaw crusher and TIMA mill followed by sieving with 200 meshes. Heavy non-magnetic minerals are separated using Wilfley table, magnetic separator, and heavy liquid separation. After these treatments, Zircons are handpicked from heavy mineral fractions and arranged on a quartz slide using stereo zoom microscope. PFA® Teflon is used for mounting these zircon grains to remain fixed on their arranged positions which helps in documentation and subsequent analyses. Now, polishing and grinding of the Teflon stubs are done to expose the flat interior surface of the zircons. After this, a Gatan Chroma CL UV attached to a Carl Zeiss EVO 40 EP scanning electron microscope with the probe current of 10-20 nAis used for getting the CL image of zircons to ascertain the degree of alteration in form of zoning and fractures. These are crucial information needed during analyses and therefore they are well documented with suitable mosaic of images. Once the slide is ready, it is put inside the computer controlled movable sample chamber of the Laser Ablation unit to fix the spots for analyses with a spatial resolution of ~10 microns. Before running the samples we run the international Zircon Standards to check the accuracy of the instrument on routine basis.

• In Liquid mode: First of all the object of study (Sample; Rock/Sediemnt/Soil/Water etc.) is dissolved with Acids to obtain a clear solution which may contain different elements. Now theelement of interest (Lithium to Uranium) is extracted by users in its purest form through ion-exchange chromatography under clean room environment (Class-10000) with low procedural blanks. Once the element is extracted, it is brought into diluted HNO3 medium before it is taken up for analysis. Before running the samples we run the international Standards to check the accuracy of the instrument on routine basis.

• In solid mode: About 5 kg of rock sample is required for zircon separation. All the processing related to Zircon isolation is done here. All the sample processing work will be done by the user that includes mineral separation, slide preparation etc.

• In liquid mode:For Water sample: About 30-50 ml water sample is required for its Sr isotopic ratio measurement. For Sample processing work will be done by user.

• For rock/ Sediment/Soil: About 0.5 gm sample is required in case of rock/sediment/soil sample.For Sample processing work will be done by user.