Water Sciences Shared Services Laboratories

The Shared Services Laboratories house instruments and equipment acquired through research grants by Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre faculty members in order to make optimal use of all laboratory resources, combining state-of-the-art equipment and experienced personnel.

Available equipment

• Plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer coupled to a mass spectrometer (ICP-MS)
• Plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer (ICP-AES)
• UV-visible spectrophotometer
• Spectrofluorometer
• Scintillation counter
• Gamma counter
• Particle counter
• Microscopes and image processing room
• Liquid, gas, and ion chromatography (HPLC, LC-MS-MS, GC, GC-MS)
• Organic and inorganic carbon analyzer
• NCS analyzer
• Technicon autoanalyzer
• Infrared spectrometer (FTIR)
• Mercury analyzer
• Laser granulometer
• Environmental rooms
• Class 1000 ultra-clean clean room with Class 100 workspaces
• Class 10,000 clean room for trace metal analysis
• Microwave digestion system
• Geological sample grinding and preparation room
• High-resolution gamma counter for sediment dating
• Mobile laboratory

Qualified staff

The Shared Services Laboratories are managed and operated by a highly experienced team. The lab manager is in charge of coordinating activities and supervising staff. He ensures that analytical methods are up to date and that laboratory safety rules and quality control procedures are followed.

A team of technicians helps develop analytical methods, train students, and perform most of the chemical and biological analyses required for research projects. They also maintain the equipment they are responsible for. The team also includes certified divers who collect samples and install equipment during field campaigns.

The Shared Services Laboratories have up-do-date safety equipment, and all staff are trained in first aid.

The Water Sciences Shared Services Laboratories are available to Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre faculty members, students, and staff for research projects. Interns from various academic institutions are also occasionally accepted.

Lab resources can also be used for external collaborations and R&D contracts.

The Shared Services Laboratories have all the equipment required for the:

• Analysis of water samples by colorimetry, fluorometry, spectrometry, scintigraphy, and chromatography, as well as organic compounds and trace metals in various matrices
• Elemental analysis of solid samples

Most of the lab equipment was acquired through grants from the Canada Innovation Foundation (CIF) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).