In a state that has made an industry out of gaming, Nevadans can now wager on one thing for sure: DRI’s research into ultra-low level chemistry has paid off big. DRI now houses a unique facility focused on the analysis of metals and other chemical species in the ultra-trace realm.
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Undergraduate student Nathan Edwards, left, and Dr. Ross Edwards are suited up to work on the new mass spectrometers in the clean room of the Ultra-Trace Chemistry Lab. (Photo by Heather Emmons) |
Ultra-trace, or parts per billion, quantities—less than 0.000000001 grams of chemical per gram of sample—are extremely important in the environment and in industrial processes such as the manufacture of computer chips.
Very little is known regarding the impact of ultra-trace chemistry on the Earth’s environment, largely because of the extreme difficulty of taking measurements at such low levels.
As testimony to the importance of this research, the National Science Foundation supported DRI’s recent purchase of two instruments capable of making measurements down to the astonishingly small parts per quadrillion level—0.000000000000001 grams per gram of sample.
The instruments, called High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometers, are housed in DRI’s class-100 clean room, which requires researchers to wear space suit-like clothing.
With approximately $1 million of recent National Science Foundation and NASA funding, the lab is currently focused on reading the history of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate as recorded in polar and alpine snow. In Antarctica and Greenland, the snow becomes ice that can be drilled out of the ice cap and read like tree rings, with much of the history preserved in the ice being recorded at the ultra-trace level. With two instruments operating in parallel, the lab is the only facility in the world that can analyze ice cores for a large number of ultra-trace chemical species simultaneously. DRI researchers Drs. Joe McConnell, Ross Edwards and others travel to the ends of the Earth to obtain ice core samples.
“The samples are extremely difficult to retrieve, and when we analyze them we are aware that it may be our only chance to get data for that site,” McConnell says. “Therefore, it’s critical that we make as many measurements as possible on a single sample of ice.”
The instruments are also being used to analyze samples from Nevada and neighboring states. The lab has recently analyzed a large number of snow samples for silver and other metals that result from cloud seeding.
“We’re looking for chemicals used to seed winter storms to help determine the effectiveness of seeding operations,” Edwards says. “These metals are present at extremely low concentrations and require the full power of our instruments to detect them.”
The lab has also been used for numerous other projects including the analysis of drinking water supplies from Africa and water from Lake Tahoe. While the lab is focused on government-funded environmental research, it also represents an important resource for Nevada’s growing high-tech industries.
–Heather Emmons
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