The joys of lab work

Mössbauer cold head maintenance (July 2022)

Once again – the Mössbauer cold head needed maintenance; this time it was a ‘hot swap’.

The cryostat needed only partial disassembling.

And once the new (refurbished) cold head was installed, 4 K was on the books again.

Maggie’s large bio-columns are being put to work! (July 2022)

Maggie showing off re replicate bio-columns, filled with different clay minerals and incubated with local pond water. Fingers crossed for successful bio-reduction and treatment cycles!

Maggie showing the setup she developed. (Anke is clearly impressed and happy.)

Maggie’s array of bio-columns.

Lab work in the time of Covid19 (September 2020)

And we are back in the lab!!

Maggie setting up her columns, observing all Covid19 safety guidance.

Harry showing the CV19-safe Environmental Redox Chemistry Lab.

Mössbauer coldhead maintenance (2019):

Disassembling the cryostat:

Harry disassembling the table.

Critical stages.

The cryostat is set free.

At the heart of the cryostat.

Almost there (with Eric from Semimetrics)!

All stages neatly arranged until reassembling.

Reassembling the cryostat after maintenance:

All wires neatly soldered back on.

The cryostat is ready to go back to work.

And we are back in (Mössbauer) business!

Wastewater treatment – Jim is helping Pani with her experiments in the glovebox (2018):

Jim explaining some details.

Pani’s replicate experiments.

Keeping the light out.

Well prepared for the big experiment!

Kath’s display of colors (2017):

7-reduced-nontronites-sitting-on-a-wall-5-91-feii — Shades of green and blue: (partly) reduced clay mineral NAu-1

native-and-fully-red-nau-1 — Native and fully reduced clay mineral NAu-1

fe-tiron-ox-right-red-left — Fe-tiron reduced (left) and oxidized (right)

fe-tiron-nau-1-left-fe-tiron-after-reaction-with-nac-right — Fe-tiron with NAu-1 before (left) and after reaction with NAC (right)

aqdsox-left-aqds-red-right — AQDS and reduced form of AQDS (AQDSH2)

Jim’s clay minerals et al (2017):

swy-2-nau-1-nau-2 — Clay minerals in preparation: SWy-2, NAu-1, and NAu-2

biotite-cleavage — Biotite cleavage

before-and-after-adding-swy-2-to-fresh-feoh2 — Fresh ferrous hydroxide before (left) and after adding SWy-2 (right)

feoh2-after-1-week-reacting-with-tce-slight-colour-change-on-flocs — Ferrous hydroxide after 1 week reaction with TCE

Mössbauer coldhead maintenance (2017):

Disassembling the cryostat:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

img_1140_rot — Set up for storage in an orderly manner.

Reassembling the cryostat after 1 week maintenance:

Looks the same – works the same.

Temperature control re-established, with the sound back to normal.

Clean up after MSc projects (2016):