The clean lab space is approximately 400 square feet, with a HEPA-filtered, positively-pressured air supply, 73 air changes per hour, and a redundant exhaust fan configuration, with an ISO 4 (or class 10) certification. Three five-foot, polypropylene, ULPA-filtered laminar-flow, exhausted hoods are used for sample digestion, drying, and ion exchange chromatography. A seven-foot hood is used for in-house distillation of nitric and hydrochloric acids, acid titration, and acid-cleaning of all Teflon. The hoods are complemented by polypropylene cabinetry, Mettler-Toledo XP205DR and XS4002S balances with LabX software support, an ULPA-filtered drying box for clean plastics, and Teflon-coated graphite block hot plates with programmable Eurotherm controllers. There is also a MARS 6 high-throughput microwave digestion system to assist with organic digestion.
The clean lab allows for the sample preparation and digestion of materials for ICPMS analysis. The Metal Isotopes Laboratory offers in-house acid distillation, high purity Milli-Q water, and digestion materials in order to prepare samples for analysis with very low levels of contamination. Samples can be prepared by the MIL and are digested on a per-sample fee structure.
