Facilities and analytical capabilities

Members of the MATES group use numerous laboratories and facilities across the School, the University, and the world.

The School of Earth Sciences Biogeochemistry laboratories house a suite of incubators (5-70 °C), light incubators, fume hoods, laminar flow hoods, 150 L floor standing autoclave, centrifuges, anaerobic gloveboxes, ultrapure (MilliQ) water, analytical balances. Analytical equipment includes: UV-Vis spectrophotometer, ATR-FTIR spectrometer, Fe-57 Mössbauer Spectrometer (4.2 – 295 K), Qubit Fluorometer, PCR machines, flow cytometer, DNA and protein gel equipment and a fluorescence microscope.

Group members also make extensive use of the Microbeam Facility,Bristol Isotope Group (BIG) labs, Aqueous and Environmental Geochemistry lab, the Organic Geochemistry Unit labs,  School of Geography laboratories, Diamond Light Source, and the Environmental Geoscience ICP-OES lab.

Instrumentation

• 57 Mössbauer spectrometer (Wissel)

  With a cryostat (Janis) equipped to run samples across a temperature range 4.2 - 295 K, we measure samples containing iron to determine oxidation state, mineral composition and relative abundancies. The technique runs in transmission mode and is limited by the concentration of iron in the samples which are typically prepared as powders.
• UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher)

  Able to measure both 96 well plates and single cuvettes, we routinely use the UV-Vis spectrophotometer to quantify iron (Fe(II) and Fe(total)), optical density of microbial cultures and other analytes.
• FTIR (Bruker Invenio)

  Equipped with an ATR cell we measure reactions of solid precipitates with different reagents in situ.