DRY ICE ACTIVE SORB
The DRY ICE ACTIVE SORB is a cryogenic cold trap capable of 6K operation. The unit is able to go to 10K in less than 1 hour and offers a range of temperature control.
A high temperature of 375K is achieved as standard for initial bake out, however higher temperatures ranges are available on request.
Applications
- Noble Gas Spectroscopy e.g. helium, argon, neon, xenon and krypton
- UHV Cryogenic Sample Space with sorption pump
- Separate He and Ne
- Separate Ar from Kr and Xe
Principle of Operation
The sorb's chamber contains an absorption material which is cooled using a mechanical cryocooler. By crushing and heating the analysis sample to high temperatures and feeding the resulting gas to the sorb, the gas will be trapped.
The absorption material is then heated in a highly controlled manner. As the temperature is stepped up, the trapped gasses reach their individual evaporation points. The released gas from the process is fed into a gas chromatography unit for analyses.
A benefit of this technique is that using a stepped temperature increase allows for the separation of trapped gasses. Volumes of each gas can therefore be measured separately.
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Sorb Type |
ElectroPolished Stainless Steel |
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Temperature Range |
6-500K |
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Cooling Time: 300K to 10K |
<1 hour |
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Vacuum |
<1x10-9 torr |
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Temperature Probe |
Temperature Controller with RS-232 Ports |
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Height |
1080mm to 1300mm |
Customer Research Paper
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.
