On last week I was busy with my poster, video, and lesson pitch. Also, I completed the work on Gas chromatography, so I shadowed my Mentor Mr. Tao Sun how to do isotope analysis using Nu Perspective instrument.

The most important part is we need to maintain our lab temperature between 5^OC to 40^OC while maintaining relative humidity from 80% to 50%. This instrument is having ability to achieve precise measurements from the smallest sample. The Perspective with its standard collector block sets a new benchmark in performance for routine stable isotope ratio applications for the measurement of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, Sulphur, and hydrogen. In addition, this instrument is having a capability to analyze clumped isotopes with exceptional sensitivity and linearity.

The key difference between gas chromatography and Nu perspective mass spectrometry is that gas chromatography is important in separating components in a mixture, whereas Nu perspective mass spectrometry is useful in calculating the exact molecular weight of the sample components.

My mentor is using garnet sample which is having silicon-oxygen tetrahedron. We used fluorine gas and then laser to heat up the sample so it will release oxygen for isotope calculation.

We used Gas Chromatography and now we also used another instrument to verify our results. The Delta V plus mass spectrometer primarily designated to measure the isotope ratio of H/D, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ³⁴S/³²S, ³⁷Cl/³⁵Cl and most important one ¹²C/¹³C and other elements that can be transformed into gaseous substance. The gases used with this type of IRMS are CO₂, H₂, N₂, NO, O₂ etc.

We are working on Amino Acid samples to measure Nitrogen Isotopes. For our lab we are having secondary inlet system for up to 20 samples. We can use samples in very small amount and the results are done at IRMS.

We are using Isobat 2.5 software suite for system control, data acquisition and data evaluation that is an integral part of the system architecture.

We do the analysis of amino acid for N-15 and C-13 abundance in five different Amino Acids ( Tyrosine, Leucine, Glycine, Glutamic Acid and Aspartic Acid) by using Elemental Analyzer/isotope ratio mass spectrometry in instrument name Delta V plus- IRMS.

We find out that Tyrosine is having highest number of N-15 isotopes and Aspartic Acid and Glutamic.

We understand the simple phenomenon where fish eats algae which are having δ15N. And when fish urinate than less amount of δ15N came out. Finally, when human being eats those fish than they get higher amount of δ15N and also during removing waste human also excrete less δ15N. And this Nitrogen played major role in protein synthesis.

Today I had done Gas chromatography of natural gases which we got samples from cold seeps gas bubble which occur most often at tectonic plate boundaries. Carbonate deposits and communities of organisms are often found at these sites. It consists of hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid . The purpose is to find the ratio of Carbon 13/Carbon 12

We used Isobat software to communicate with our GC and IRMS

Our starting temperature was 40⁰C and which goes upto 210^OC.

The samples we take in different amount like 10µ ml, 50 µ ml and 100 µml.

Today I got opportunity to visit MD Jamaluddin lab in BRC- Bioscience Research Collaborative building where he is doing research on “Development of boronic acid-Rh(II) catalysts for proximity-induced glycopeptides and glycoproteins modification’ under the guidance of his mentor Mr. Reynor

Both person are busy doing the synthesize the poly peptides and for data synthesis they used HPLC and Mass Spectroscopy. I like to visit their lab as they are also working on Amino Acid and my research are also include Isotopic analysis of Amino Acid using Gas Chromatography using GC Isolink.

On Friday I attended the conference about the reasons for climate change.

We discuss about the following causes:

• Heat-trapping Greenhouse Gases and The Earth’s Climate. …
• Greenhouse Gases. …
• Reflectivity or Absorption of the Sun’s Energy. …
• Volcanic Activity.

While need to do more discussion in future about other causes like:

• Changes in the Earth’s Orbit and Rotation. …
• Variations in Solar Activity. …
• Changes in the Earth’s Reflectivity. …

During the conference all speakers who are professors in Rice university mainly discuss about Greenhouse gases and their production due to increase in use of fossil fuel from last century. The major players are the increase in production of carbon dioxide and methane gas with Nitrous oxide and ozone and the lack of resources to trapping those gases before they reach at the top troposphere.

We discussed various effects like Increased heat, drought and insect outbreaks, all linked to climate change, have increased wildfires. Declining water supplies reduced agricultural yields, health impacts in cities due to heat, and flooding and erosion in coastal areas are additional concerns.

On presenter especially discuss about Coral reef, as due to global warming when earth atmosphere temperature goes up than it will warm the ocean water and then corals will expel the algae living in their tissues causing the corals to turn complete white which is also known as coral bleaching.

Finally, we do the brainstorming grouping where I stayed with my Chemistry High School teachers, and we discuss various activities we can use in our classroom. One of the activities which I like most is we let students decide their own chemicals they can use to react with carbon dioxide and methane gas to neutralize them. We understand may be those reaction is not possible or may need lot of energy which may not be possible in common things like car, trains or fuel based electricity generating units.

I am working with my mentor Mr. Sun Tao under guidance of Professor L. Yeung. We are going to find both Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes in Amino Acid. We concentrate more on N-15 which will help in further study of the uptake of Nitrogen in plants and the metabolism of proteins in Human body. We are going to use instruments made by Thermo Fisher Scientific and it called GC Isolink where we use Combustion Mode for analysis of 13C and 15N Isotopes while we can also use HTC mode to find 2H and 18O isotopes .

Our Process: All compounds oxidized in capillary combustion reactor to Carbon dioxide, water and Nitrogen at 1030 centigrade. All NO produce will reduce to N2 by the surplus of Ni/NiO in capillary reactor. We will remove water using permeable polymer capillary.

Further for 15N/14N all carbon dioxide is retained in liquid Nitrogen trap before transfer into Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) through ConfloIV interface.

Today with help of my mentor Mr. Sun we go through various configuration in ISOBAT computer programming while learning on both modes (Operation Mode and Flow Mode) with setting of temperature both in Combustion and HTC Oven while working on Trace GC ultra and also setting samples in Triplus