Organic and Isotope Geochemistry

Department listing

Dr. Anthony K. Aufdenkampe, Assistant Research Scientist | Profile | Email

• Stephanie Dix, Geochemist, Level III | Profile | Email
• Linda Carter, Ph.D. Profile | Email

Laboratory Facilities

Fee for Service Sample Analyses (email for price quote)

• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)
• Sewage indicators caffeine, fragrances and fecal steroids
• Amino acids
• Carbon and nitrogen isotopes in solids – %C, %N, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵
• Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) in water – concentration and δ¹³C
• Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) in water – concentration and δ¹³C
• Dissolved gases N₂, O₂, Ar – concentrations, δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O
• Dissolved nitrate isotopes – δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O
• Mineral surface area and porosimetry analysis
• Alkalinity or Acid Neutralizing Capacity (ANC)

Laboratory Instrumentation

• Thermo-Finnigan DeltaPlus XP Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (IRMS) equipped with a dual inlet system and interfaced in continuous flow mode to:
• a Costech 4010 CHNS-O Elemental Analyzer (EA);
• an OI 1010 TOC-TIC Analyzer (TIC-TOC, shared with the Biogeochemistry group)
• a Thermo-Finnigan Gasbench II with dual cryogenic traps, configured to analyze dissolved gases CO₂, N₂, O₂, Ar, N₂0.
• Agilent 6890 series Gas Chromatograph (GC) coupled to a 5973 series Mass Selective Detector (MSD)
• Agilent 6890 series Gas Chromatograph (GC) coupled to a Flame Ionization Detector (FID) and interfaced with an optional cryogenic focusing system for two-dimensional chromatography.
• Agilent 1100 series High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) with diode array and fluorescence detectors and an autosampler (shared with the Biogeochemistry group)
• Micromeritics TriStar 3000 surface area and porosimetry analyzer;
• Bruker Tensor 27 Spectrometer with a Pike XY Autosampler accessory for automated Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT);
• Mettler-Toledo DL50 Autotitrator with Rondolino autosampler.
• Mettler-Toledo UMX2 Ultra-Microbalance.

Laboratory Facilities

• The Stroud Water Research Center is housed in a newly renovated 24,820-square-foot combined research and teaching facility. Research laboratories, including a greenhouse and two wet laboratories that are continuously supplied with stream water, occupy 10,200 sq. ft. of space. Organic and Isotope Geochemistry laboratories housing the above instrumentation occupies approximately 1200 sq. ft.
• In addition, a 400 sq. ft. “¹⁴C Clean Lab” was constructed in an outbuilding to enable contamination-free processing of organic matter samples for natural abundance radiocarbon analyses at national centers for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS).

STEPHANIE A. DIX

Geochemist, Level III, 2006 to present.

Education:

B.S. in Biology, concentration in Marine Biology, Millersville University, 2005.

Stephanie is the lab manager for the Organic Geochemistry group. She is in charge of operating and maintaining analytical instrumentation, which includes an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) coupled with an elemental analyzer and dissolved organic carbon analyzer to measure stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The IRMS is also coupled with a GasBench II to measure isotopes of dissolved gases (N₂0, CO₂, N₂, O₂, and Ar). She also maintains and operates a surface area analyzer to measure the surface area of soils, and a Fourier Transform infrared spectrometer. Stephanie manages field sampling trips, interns, and sample processing for the organic geochemistry lab.

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LINDA CARTER, Ph.D.

Research Associate, 2006 to present.

Education:

Ph.D.   University of Illinois, Organic Chemistry
M.Sc.   Purdue University, Biochemistry
B.A.     Case Western Reserve University, Chemistry

Linda oversees and assists with projects involving the use of molecular tracers to identify potential contamination sources in stream water and other media. She operates and maintains the Agilent GCMS and related software. Linda oversees the operation of the organic chemistry laboratory.

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