This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant supports acquisition of a an electron microprobe (EMP) equipped with five wavelength dispersive spectrometers (WDS), an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), a cathodoluminescence (CL) microscope and a LaB6 electron source to permit micron scale compositional mapping of geologic and synthesized materials. A new electron microscope with the analytical capabilities to be included will foster research and research training in the solid Earth sciences, materials science and archaeology. A new EMP facility at Syracuse will serve as a regional facility for microchemcial characterization of solid natural and synthetic materials in central New York State, supporting the needs of many faculty and students at over a dozen academic institutions. This support is congruent with NSFs mission of promoting the progress of science and advancing the national health, prosperity and welfare given the importance of electron microscopy for advancing understanding of the genesis of Earth materials and in this case in particular, supporting investigator studies of the corrosion of metallic medical implants. Thus the research supported with this instrument immediately serves the societal interests of an aging U.S. population. The instrument will also support the training of a next generation scientific workforce with skills in state-of-the-art methods of materials characterization.
Specific research applications that require an electron probe for determining the micron-scale distribution of trace element in minerals and synthesized materials will include studies of chemical equilibrium and diffusion and reaction kinetics in rocks and minerals with applications to the development of new geothermobarometers that promise to advance understanding of the pressure and temperature conditions at which mid and deep crustal mineral assemblages in exhumed metamorphic rocks formed, studies of magmatic processes, trace element investigations of detrital mineral phases to elucidate provenance, applied studies of the corrosion behavior of metallic medical implants, geoforensics, and archaeological investigations of artifact provenance.
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