Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/Z503721/1
LIBS-Hyperscan: ultra-high resolution element scanning and molecular mapping of environmental archives
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr M van Hardenbroek, Newcastle University, Sch of Geog, Politics and Sociology
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor L Shillito, Newcastle University, Sch of History, Classics and Archaeology
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr S E MacLachlan, National Oceanography Centre, Science and Technology
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor ACG Henderson, Newcastle University, Sch of Geog, Politics and Sociology
- Grant held at:
- Newcastle University, Sch of Geog, Politics and Sociology
- Science Area:
- None
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Earth and environmental scientists use a range of natural archives to understand how climate, ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, landscapes, and human-environment interactions have varied over geologic to modern timescales. These natural archives also document ongoing impacts of the Anthropocene and identify potential mineral deposits to ensure sustainability of critical resources. Over the past twenty years, the community's approach to understanding sedimentary and rock archives, and archaeological deposits, has been revolutionized through scanning technologies e.g., scanning ?XRF to detect elemental composition, X-ray radiography and computer tomography of sediment structures and density. Other powerful methods use digital image analysis and colour and multi-channel reflectance spectroscopy in the visible and near infrared range (typically 380-1000 nm), which are used to identify organic substances and minerals in sediments based on their diagnostic colour absorption properties. As a result, we can characterize past climate variability, natural and human-driven changes in biogeochemical cycling, discriminate annual layering in deposits and sedimentary structures in hitherto unavailable high-resolution. However, these techniques are often employed in isolation as they require several different instruments and methods, and often these are housed across a range of different sites and facilities. LIBS-Hyperscan will be a new type of scanning instrument that brings together two different technologies on to a single scanning platform, the first of its kind in UK and arguably globally, which will allow the analysis of a broader range of elements at higher resolution and analytical precision through laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and multi-channel reflectance spectroscopy across the visible and near infra-red (VNIR) and short-wavelength infra-red (SWIR) ranges (400-2500 nm) through hyperspectral imagining. This new platform will allow natural archives to be rapidly analysed for their chemical make-up by simultaneously using: 1) LIBS - which produces a single short laser pulse on the samples surface and the resulting plasma plume emits radiation that is detected and used to establish chemical composition of the sample, with the ability to directly measure light elements (down to Li and B), including non-metals (e.g., C, O). The scan speed depends on the resolution, which starts at 100 ?m and it would typically take 10 minutes to scan 1-m at this resolution - orders of magnitude faster than existing instruments for scanning ?XRF, while covering a broader range of elements, especially light ones that are not captured with x-ray technology. 2) Hyperspectral imaging technology generates near-continuous data over the entire surface of whole, split/slabbed core samples, plugs and chips. Every pixel in a hyperspectral VNIR and SWIR image contains an infrared spectrum which is interrogated using specialist interpretation software to identify, quantify and map specific mineral types, mineral chemistry, zones of mineral alteration, liquid and solid hydrocarbons, and contaminants. The combination of these technologies on one platform - LIBS-Hyperscan - will be analytically unique and provide the data required to tackle several environmental challenges across NERC's remit, at unprecedented resolution, precision, and speed for the community.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/Z503721/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Authorisation
- Scheme:
- Research Grants
- Grant Status:
- Approved
- Programme:
- Capital Call
This grant award has a total value of £749,935
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Exception - Equipment |
|---|
| £749,934 |
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