Clean Room Geochemistry Group

Building Y

Lab manager: PD Dr. J. Elis Hoffmann

The new (2025) clean laboratory facilities of the geochemistry group of FU Berlin consists of two metal-free ISO-5 class clean rooms, equipped with seven ISO-3 class laminar flow work stations for elemental separation and cleaning procedures, fifteen hotplates, two Merck MilliQ systems and fiveSavillex stills for the production of double-distilled acids. Attached are a balance room and a storage room. The laboratory allows low-blank sample preparation and element separation for isotope abundance and abundances of different elements in rock samples, minerals and aqueous solutions. The digestion laboratory is equipped with high-pressure asher (HPA-S), Parr pressure vessels and a MK pressure digestion system for different ways of sample digestion.

The clean lab is accessible via a double gate consisting of an entrance room and an ante room equipped with an overstep to separate the clean lab from the digestion lab and the entrance area. While experiments are conducted, researchers can work remotely in an attached office room.

The spectrum of elements that are currently separated for the analysis on our mass spectrometers include Re-Os, Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd for dating and isotopic composition, mass-independent Cr, Ti and W for isotope abundance measurements, and mass-dependent stable isotope variations (Cu, Zn, Tl, Cr, Cd and K). In addition, ultra trace element analyses of highly siderophile (PGE, Re, Au) and chalcophile elements (S, Se, Te, Cd, In, Cu, Ag, Mo, Tl) can be performed for abundance determination employing isotope dilution. Moreover, abundances of 44 conventional trace elements in basic to evolved rocks can be routinely determined.

Pictures

Clean laboratory facilities of the Geochemistry Group