Research

This section is still a work in progress—kind of like a fine wine, it just needs a little more time to mature. Check back later for the full experience!

Facilities

Our lab is located within the Utah Water Research Lab, where we operate in the shared-use Environmental Quality Laboratory equipped with a wide range of advanced analytical instrumentation. We frequently utilize shared-use instruments such as LC-MS-MS, Pyrolysis GC-MS and HPLC to analyze and quantify emerging contaminants.

Central instruments in our lab are listed as follows:

Nucleic Acid and Protein Analysis

Sample Preparation and Processing

Sample Observation, Storage, and Safety

H Lab also has a shared Environmental Quality Laboratory, which includes instruments as listed below:

Organic Analysis & Sample Preparation

Agilent 6890/5973 GC/MS system for headspace analysis of volatile compounds in solids or liquids
Aglient 7890/5973 with Perkin-Elmer Thermal Desorber for analysis of air samples concentrated on sorbent tubes.
Agilent 7890/5975C GC/MS system with CombiPal sample introduction system for liquid, headspace or Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) analysis. Capable of positive or negative EI and CI ionization.
Varian 3000 GC/TCD for % level digester gas analysis
Shimadzu GC14 with HID universal detector for hydrogen analysis.
Shimadzu GC14 with FID/TCD and headspace sampler for light hydrocarbon and fixed has analysis
Aglient 1200/6220 Liquid Chromatograph/Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometer for untargeted screening in liquid samples using high-resolution mass spectrometry.
Agilent 1290/6490 LC-QqQ triple quadrupole LC/MS/MS for ultra-low (ng/L) detection limits for target compounds in aqueous matrices.
Agilent 1100 HPLC with Diode Array (DAD) and Evaporative Light Scattering (ELSD) detectors for traditional HPLC/UV-Vis methods, in addition to analysis of compounds lacking a chromophore (i.e. sugars)
Air samples via sorbent tubes
Air samples via direct injection through sample valve
Headspace samples in 20 mL headspace vials
Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) of organic compounds in water samples on C18 or mixed-mode resin cartridges.
Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME)
Liquid-Liquid extractions via sep funnel.
Liquid-Solid extractions via traditional Sohxlet or ThermoFisher-Dionix Accelerate Solvent Extraction methods.

Elemental Analysis & Sample Preparation

Agilent 7700x Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for analysis of trace elements
Perkin-Elmer AAnalyst 800 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for analysis of metals by flame AA, and trace metals by graphite furnace AA, and arsenic, selenium, and mercury by hydride generation AA.
Milestone Ethos EZ Microwave Digestion System
Environmental Express Hotblocks

Nutrient Analysis

Seal AQ2+ Automated Discrete Analyzer for ammonium, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate

Radiochemical Analysis

Beckman LS 6500 Liquid Scintillation System for 14C and 3H tracer studies.
Biological Oxidizers for sample preparation for radiochemical analysis of plant and soil samples

Ion Chromatography

Dionex DX-500 ion chromatograph for common anions and volatile fatty acids.
Dionex DX-1300 ion chromatograph (including a reagent free system, a gradient pump (GP40) and an electrical conductivity detector (CD20)) for common cations and anions and volatile fatty acids.
Dionex DX-1600 ion chromatograph with post column reaction and UV-VIS detection for hexavalent chromium.

Other Resources

Two Coy anaerobic glove bags
Two constant temperature rooms of approximately 400 square feet of floor space each that are capable of maintaining temperatures of between 10° and 30 ± 2° C