Chemistry

The University of Arizona AMS Laboratory offers a wide range of dating services. This includes Radiocarbon dating, Beryllium dating, Iodine analysis and Biobased testing.

The vision of the Molecular Discovery Core (MDC) is to build a highly collaborative and state-of-the-art facility at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus to accelerate early-stage drug discovery in the Arizona research community with several instruments geared toward the analysis of biomolecules. This core supports a wide variety of research activities that depend on the detection and analysis of proteins, nucleic acids, compounds, bioactive molecules and biomolecular interactions.

The Arizona Noble Gas Laboratory studies noble gases in a diversity of geological samples as rock, mineral, and water samples, for geochronologic and geochemical studies in Earth, planetary, and environmental science. The lab is equipped with two new multi-collector gas-source sector mass spectrometer and two sample extraction and purification lines including devices for gases extracting using induction furnace and laser heating, crushing of fluid-inclusions, and exsolution from fluids. State of the art high-resolution, high-sensitivity, and multi-collection capabilities of the mass spectrometers will enable simultaneous measurement of all isotopes of most of the noble gases. Important research focus will include 1) geo- and thermochronology using the 40Ar/ 39Ar system for applications in tectonic, detrital, volcanic, and fault-systems; 2) low-temperature 3He/ 4He thermochronology and understanding helium mobility in minerals; 3) cosmogenic and nucleogenic 21Ne dating for geomorphic applications and for dating secondary minerals like iron oxides; and 4) isotopic compositions and concentrations of noble gases for tracing the fluxes and evolution of subsurface fluid-rock systems.

The Arizona LaserChron Center is an NSF Community Facility that is designed to address problems in Earth Science through the generation of U-Th-Pb geochronologic data and complementary geochemical information by Laser Ablation ICP Mass Spectrometry. The main instruments utilized at the Arizona LaserChron Center include a Nu Plasma multicollector ICPMS, a Thermo Element2 single-collector ICPMS, a Teledyne Iridia laser and two Analyte G2 lasers, and a Hitachi 3400N SEM, all of which are dedicated to ALC research. These instruments were acquired with support from the University of Arizona, the National Science Foundation, and ExxonMobil Upstream Research.

The Molecular Structures Core (MSC) enables researchers to determine the structures and dynamics, or motions, of large biomolecules such as proteins and DNA to understand how they interact with each other and with small molecules such as drugs.

The Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants is located at the University of Arizona to assist faculty, student and staff researchers working in the field of water sustainability to detect, quantify and speciate organic and inorganic micro-pollutants – including dissolved and nano-particulate components - in complex environmental matrices.

The Keck Center for Nano-Scale Imaging provides optical, scanning electron and atomic force imaging services as well as sensitive absorbance and infrared spectroscopy analysis.

The Arizona Radiogenic Helium Dating Laboratory works with a wide range of geomorphologists and tectonicists to address problems related to uplift, erosion, faulting, and other orogenic issues.

The X-ray diffraction facility provides analysis of single-crystal and powder samples to determine the molecular structure in the solid-state.

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility provides high-resolution analysis of organic compounds, peptides, oligonucleotides, small biopolymers, and small proteins to elucidate the structure and conformation of complex molecules in solution.