Sample preparation lab

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Sample preparation lab includes: Freeze-drying equipment room (KIJI room), Mineral separation room and Sample storage room (TARO room).

Freeze-drying equipment room (KIJI room)

The freeze-drying equipment, freezers (-70 °C) and HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) equipment are installed. Pre-concentration procedure by freeze-drying is applied for the analysis of extremely low concentration liquid samples (hot spring waters etc.). The name "KIJI room" comes from our first-generation TIMS (Finnigan MAT 261) named KIJI (meaning of pheasant in Japanese) which was installed in this room.

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Mineral separation room

Carry out early processing for the analytical process, such as phase separation and sample decomposition by high temperature with or without high pressure. Sample crushing, grinding and/or mineral separations, especially for the extraterrestrial or small amount and low concentration sample (ex. meteorites, xenoliths and peridotites) are performed in this room. The target fraction is separated from a crushed sample by hand picking (using a tweezer under a binocular), or by magnetic separator.

Furthermore, a fume hood and electric furnaces are also equipped as the small section in this room. These are used for decompose samples containing acid-resistant minerals such as zircon and spinel by the Teflon bomb equipment with high temperature and pressure and, sample decomposition by aqua regia using Carius tube (ex. PGE analysis). The biological samples, such as cancer tissue excised from lung, are completely combusted the organic matrix by ashing in a muffle furnace in this room to remove interferences on ICP-MS analysis

Related Work

• Wang et al. (2010) Determination of Fluorine and Chlorine by Pyrohydrolysis and Ion Chromatography: Comparison with Alkaline Fusion Digestion and Ion Chromatography, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, 34(2), 175-183.
• Nakamura et al. (2009). Accumulation of radium in ferruginous protein bodies formed in lung tissue: association of resulting radiation hotspots with malignant mesothelioma and other malignancies, Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, 85(7), 229-239.

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Sample storage room (TARO room)

The name "TARO room" comes from our first generation TIMS (Finnigan MAT 262) named TARO (Japanese fairy tale hero), which was installed in this room. The instrument was damaged beyond repair due to the earthquake in October 2016.

It is now a sample storage room. The PML collection of meteorites, samples and chemical reagents used for analyses in the Chemistry Clean laboratories, are stored in this room.