^DRY ICE ACTIVE SORB

• Dual-Material Sorbent Configurations

Choose Electropolished Stainless Steel for pristine sample purity or Activated Charcoal matrix for high-volume gas trapping.

• Advanced Active & Passive Thermalisation

Active heating, or passive thermal isolation of the radiation shields and/or outlet tubing, preventing wall trapping or gas freezing after desorption for highly defined separation peaks.

• Industry-Leading Cooldown Rates

Rapid sample cooldown, reaching 20K in as fast as 35 minutes for rapid cycling and highly reproducible dataset generation.

• UHV Compatible Environment & Bakeout Routine

UHV-compatible sample space and sorption pump, capable of achieving base pressures below 1 x 10^-9 mbar at room temperature.

Automated, high-temperature bakeout routine up to a market-leading 500K ensures pristine chamber cleanliness.

• Narrow and wide bore UHV tube options

Narrow bore (5.2mm or 11.6mm) for enhanced surface interaction and residence time, supporting continuous flow and chromatograph-style operations.

Wide bore (27.8mm) tube for high-capacity sorption and temperature programmed separation.

• Noble gas extraction, purification, and isotope analysis for geochemistry and Earth science workflows
• Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) for controlled separation and release of gas mixtures
• Cryogenic gas purification and continuous-flow removal of condensable species (e.g. N₂, Ar, CO₂) from experimental streams
• Cryopumping and vacuum conditioning to efficiently capture and remove gases in low-temperature systems
• Controlled gas dosing and environments for quantum materials, surface science, and low-temperature physics experiments
• Rare gas recovery, storage, and handling, including pre-concentration of trace atmospheric or environmental samples

Fin Stuart and Domokos Gyore, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre

The neon (Ne) isotope composition of rocks, minerals and natural gases are powerful tracers of their origin and ultimately tell us much about the Earth's volitile inventory. To calibrate the mass spectrometers, all labs worldwide use Ne extracted from air. Consequently, we need to know precisely the isotopic composition of air  Ne. In order to achieve this, we have performed repeated high precision measurements of air-derived neon using a converted static vacuum ass spectrometer (Thermofisher Argus VI). As neon makes up only 18 ppm of atmosphere the major challenge of this study was to be able to repoducibly and rapidly isolate the Ne from air, in particular to be free of contaminating species such as H₂0,Ar and CO₂. We specifically purchased an ICEoxford DRY ICE ACTIVE SORB equipped with a Sumitomo cold head for this work, which allowed us to both purify the Ne and to concentrate it close to the mass spectrometer in order to increase the precision of the isotope ratio measurements.

Although we didn't make much of it in the paper, the DRY ICE ACTIVE SORB was integral to the study. We chose the ICE system because of the short time to cool 30K (45min) and negligible time lag between charcoal and thermocouple attaining temperature. That meant that Ne purification time was very short, allowing us to generate a huge data set in four weeks. In addition, the ease of automation of the system and the reproducible performance meant that subtle isotopic fractionation of Ne during the purification process was minimised.

We found Chris and the team to be extremely knowledge-able and responsive during discussion of the configuration of our instrument. Fitting a second heater on the radiation shield is a case in point. This shortens the time taken to release the Ne from the system and provides better temperature control. They were supportive post-purchase, assisting us in the automation process. We will undoubtedly continue to work with ICEoxford in the future.

Digitalised representation for Nobel gas release curves with the Dry ICE Active SORB and a charcoal trap. He and Ne follow established charcoal adsorption behaviour, and Ar, Kr, Xe (dashed) are modelled using logistic desorption curves constrained by noble gas adsorption hierarchy but with at least one known release temperature. This method is cited by many ICE customers, data acquired from the following publications:
1. Zimmermann et al. (2018), Chemical Geology (Burnard co-author), CRPG
2. Fin Stuart et al (2016), Energy Procedia (Györe co-author), SUERC
3. Delunel et al (2016), Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Bern

Digitalised representation for Nobel gas release curves with the Dry ICE Active SORB with an electropolished SS trap. Data acquired from the following publication:
1. Jennifer Mabry et al (2016), Chemical Geology (Burnard co-author), Oxford University Dept of Earth Science