Aeon Laboratories

Carbon Extraction & Graphitization System (CEGS)

$88,032

Load a pretreated sample into the inlet port, select your process from the drop-down menu, click Start, and you can walk away. The system automatically notifies you by email or text message when it's ready for another sample.

Once the reactor bank is full of completed samples, the graphite is easily unloaded for packing into accelerator targets. After the reactors receive new dessicant and iron catalyst, a short automatic procedure prepares them for another batch of samples. Total human effort averages less than 5 minutes per sample.

Quick-change inlet port adapters allow the CEGS to easily accept organic, carbonate, and gas samples. Stepped-temperature combustion is built-in. Any fraction can be analyzed or discarded independently of the others.

A column of hot quartz media, loaded directly into the combustion tube, ensures that all carbon is fully oxidized. It also mitigates the intrusion of contaminant particles into the vacuum system. A 20-micron frit provides further protection. Additionally, the fan-cooled stainless steel trap immediately above the combustion chamber catches room-temperature-condensable combustion gas products. Together, these measures work to keep the inlet port and the rest of the vacuum system clean for years of service.

Aeon's novel variable-temperature trap offers extreme precision and stability, enabling the quantitative isolation of targeted gases by distinctive phase change characteristics. Throughout the system, transfer coldfingers are temperature-managed by a reliable, efficient liquid nitrogen delivery system. Average liquid nitrogen consumption is less than three liters per sample.

Key features

fully automated process control
accepts organic, carbonate, and gas samples
wide sample mass range: 30 μg to 2.7 mg C are processed routinely
- small samples (30 to 100 μg C) are automatically diluted with ¹⁴C-free carbon to ~100 μg
online, stepped-temperature combustion profiles are standard
- step temperature range: 70 to 850 °C
- higher combustion and decomposition temperatures (up to ~1200 °C) can be achieved with a modest equipment change.
precision, microprocessor-controlled variable temperature trap
- VTT temperature range: -196 to +50 °C
- VTT absolute precision: ± 2 °C
- VTT repeatability: < 1 °C
- VTT stability (typical drift at hold): ± 0.3 °C
optimal CO₂ sublimation conditions:
- performed with 10-25 Pa 99.9999% He to suppress undesireable compound evolution
- minimal excess heat (only 3 °C above vapor-pressure equilibrium temperature at the monitored process pressure)
- sublimation temperature and pressure profiles are recorded for every sample
precise sample quantity measurement: ± 5 μg C
special trace sulfur trapping step available for high-sulfur samples
optimal graphitization conditions:
- precise control of all process gas quantities
  - especially important for ideal graphitization reduction H₂:CO₂ pressure ratio
- accurate, tuned PID furnace temperature control
  - absolute temperature precision: ± 10 °C
  - repeatability: < 1 °C
  - stability (worst drift full cycle): ± 1.2 °C
- small graphite reactor volume: ~3 mL
- graphitization temperature and pressure profiles recorded for every sample
- complete graphitization verified by automatic residual pressure check
very low process blank levels, typically < 0.002 fM
minimal sample cross-contamination: blanks and modern samples can be run back-to-back
all software is open-source and customizable
most sample processes can be created and changed with no programming
unique and powerful Data Visualizer utility
automatic logging of all important sample, process, and equipment conditions
very little inter-sample equipment maintenance required, normally zero
minimal manpower requirements: less than 5 minutes per sample
minimal routine maintenance
processes up to six organic samples per day
optional additional hardware can increase throughput to nearly 30 samples per day (contact us for details)

Every Aeon CEGS purchase includes
Delivery, installation, calibration, initial setup, and testing Two days of on-site, hands-on training A starter kit with enough consumable supplies to process about 100 samples A full set of maintenance and special tooling One year of (off-site) technical support

The Aeon CEGS requires the following

a table or bench with a 122 x 51 cm area of clear surface, capable of supporting 60 kg. The volume above the surface should be empty for a height of about a meter
two 120 VAC, 15 A outlets on separate circuits
an adjacently-located standard low-pressure Liquid Nitrogen cylinder (pressure-building is not required)
compressed air (> 25 psi, ~5 cfm)
research-grade, pressure-regulated gas cylinders of He, H₂, O₂
a pressure-regulated gas cylinder of ¹⁴C-free CO₂