Instrumental development and hyphenation
Our research group has a strong background in the measurement of small 14C samples with a gas ion source at the MICADAS in collaboration with ETH Zurich. Separation and sample combustion instruments are directly hyphenated (i.e. coupled) with the gas source with applications to carbonaceous aerosols in the atmosphere. A particular focus has been on building and refining of an automated gas injection system (GIS), which enables the transfer of carbon dioxide to the gas ion source from different sources, such as sealed glass ampoules, an acidification device for carbonate samples, as well as an elemental analyzer or other combustion instruments. Continuous flow coupling may allow a direct connection of such devices to the gas ion source without a junction via the GIS.
