Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories The Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories (EESL) are sharedinstrumentation, multi-user facilities. EESL consists of multiple laboratories on the University Park campus and is supported by Penn State’s Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) Radiocarbon Facility The AMS facility is one of nine laboratories in North America that offer direct AMS radiocarbon dating. The facility offers high-precision, radiocarbon age determinations of archaeological and paleoenvironmental materials, supporting researchers in various disciplines including anthropology, agriculture, ecology, geoscience, and environmental science.
Center for Quantitative Imaging (CQI) Facility The CQI facility houses one of very few large-format, flexible micro CT systems available in an academic research institution in the United States. Our services support Penn State researchers and the broader scientific community and are focused on two main areas of research: monitoring internal processes in experimental systems and characterizing complex 3D structure and material composition in natural and synthetic systems.
Laboratory for Isotopes and Metals in the Environment (LIME) Facility LIME is a world-class facility for the measurement of isotopic, major elemental, and trace elemental compositions in a wide range of materials. The LIME facility offers access to four plasmasource instruments and one thermal-source instrument for highprecision isotopic and chemical characterization. The facility offers clean chemistry laboratories for the preparation of samples, which include acid (wet) digestion, salt fusions, combustion, and ion exchange chromatographic purification. In addition, the Metal Isotope Laboratory is a class 1000 clean lab designed for sample preparation prior to isotopic analysis. LIME also houses a gas chromatograph used to measure methane concentrations in water samples, and an elemental analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometer used to measure stable isotopes.
Water Quality Lab (WQL) Facility The WQL is equipped with a full range of analytical instruments that are used for analysis of various water quality parameters. The laboratory follows strict quality assurance and quality control guidelines set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Satellite EESL (SEESL) Facilities Stopped Flow Spectrometer (SFS) Facility Our facility houses a state-of-the-art stopped flow spectrometer that is used for conducting stopped flow absorption, fluorescence, and fluorescence anisotropy experiments for various research groups across the University, other academic institutions as well as industrial clients.
Gas Chromatographic/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) Facility The GC/MS facility is equipped with a Thermo Scientific ISQ LT single quadrupole GC-MS system used to support many environmental studies to characterize metabolites, pollutant and degradation products, and hydrocarbons, as well as emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals and personal care products in natural waters.
Deployable EESL (DEESL) Facility The DEESL facility provides various field portable/deployable instruments for Penn State researchers to use. These instruments offer cost-effective, non-destructive, real-time, and onsite direct measurements. All instruments are housed in the Materials Research Laboratory Building and are calibrated and maintained by EESL field personnel. Training and standard operating procedures are provided to all users.
For more information on EESL, please contact Odette Mina, managing director of EESL. 814-863-0002 | oom5021@psu.edu
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