Lifer Lab

The Liverpool Isotope Facility for Environmental Research (LIFER) laboratory was established in 2010. We have a suite of instruments to quantify and analysis the stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen in solid, liquid and gaseous organic and inorganic chemicals. The mine of information stored in these chemicals lead to this branch of stable isotope biogeochemistry and organic biogeochemistry being a valuable tool in geology, oceanography, marine ecology, palaeoceanography, palaeolimnology, archaeology and the life sciences.  

Contact  

For questions or information on using these facilities, please contact Jim Ball: jdb@liverpool.ac.uk    

Instruments and Capabilities  

We have three stable isotope mass spectrometers:  

1. Thermo scientific Delta V advantage mass spectrometer coupled to a Thermo Scientific Gas Bench or Costech Elemental Analyser, which enables stable isotope analyses of:  

• C and N in solid samples such as sediments, organisms, soils, water filters.  
• Gases eand nutrients in aquatic samples e.g. nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate. 

2. Thermo Scientific Trace GC 1310 equipped with an autosampler, coupled to a GC Isolink and Delta V Advantage mass spectrometer. This GC-C-IRMS enables the analyses of C, N and H in specific compounds e.g. fatty acids and amino acids  

3. We have two Aglient GCs, a Thermo GCMS and two Carlo Erba EAs.