Analytical Services

IIRMES offers a wide array of physical, chemical and biological analytical services. The list below will direct you to the different facilities and analyses available along with the appropriate contact information.

How to Request an Analysis

Please reach out to iirmes@csulb.edu with details about your desired analysis. An IIRMES representative will contact you with a quote for the costs associated with your analysis or to collect additional information about your request.

On this page:

Organic Chemicals

IIRMES provides analytical services for organic chemicals (contaminant analyses), supported by two Agilent Gas Chromatographs/Mass Spectrometers (GC/MS). We can help you with the following analyses or with method development for your specific research project.

Quantification of organic contaminants including:

  • Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
  • Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) such as triclosan, DEET and caffeine
  • Chlorinated Pesticides such as DDT and its metabolites
  • Custom analysis of several other classes of chemicals

We can provide solvent extraction from:

  • Water samples with separatory funnels (EPA method 625m)
  • Sediment and tissue samples with Soxhlet extractors (EPA method 8270m)

In addition we can provide:

  • Percent Lipids (Bligh and Dyer modified gravimetric method) for tissue samples
  • Percent Solids for sediment samples

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project and sample preparation needs. For more information on organic analyses contact: Varenka.Lorenzi@csulb.edu.

Trace Metals

Our laboratory provides analytical services for trace metal and elemental analyses of water, sediments and tissue samples supported by an Agilent Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS).

We can help you with the following analyses or with method development for your specific research project:

  • Microwave assisted strong acid digestion of sediments and tissue samples (EPA 3051a)
  • Trace metals analysis by ICP-MS (EPA 200.8 and EPA 6020)
  • Sample filtration for analysis of dissolved metals in liquid samples

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project and sample preparation needs. For more information on metal analysis contact: Varenka.Lorenzi@csulb.edu.

Total Organic Carbon and Grain Size

IIRMES is fully equipped for sediment analyses and specializes in:

  • Grain Size with a digital particle size analyzer (Saturn DigiSizer, Micromeritics) that can describe the sediment grain size distribution as percentage of clay, silt and sand
  • Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in sediments with an Elemental Combustion System (Costech Inc.). We are also equipped with drying ovens and a microbalance to prepare samples for TOC analyses.

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project and sample preparation needs. For more information on TOC and Grain Size analyses contact: Varenka.Lorenzi@csulb.edu.

General Environmental Chemistry

We can perform the following analyses:

  • Hardness by ICP-MS (SM 2340B)
  • Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
  • pH
  • Major cations and silica by ICP-MS
  • Total Nitrogen in sediment by Elemental Combustion System
  • Percent Solids
  • Total Phosphorus by ICP-MS

We can help with field sampling and measure water specific conductivity, DO, pH, turbidity, temperature with a handheld instrument (YSI Multiparameter Meter).

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project and sample preparation needs. For more information on these analyses contact: Varenka.Lorenzi@csulb.edu.

Luminescence Dating

Luminescence dating (OSL and IRSL) is a technique used to date archaeological and geological materials: the time of the last heating of ceramics and lithics, and the last exposure to light for sediments.

The luminescence lab is equipped with a Risø TL/OSL Reader. Using this instrument with blue-light (BOSL) and/or infrared (IROSL) stimulation and a single-aliquot regeneration sequence (SAR) protocol with a calibrated Sr-90 source, we analyze each sample and calculate ages for the event in which the materials were last exposed to heat or light (i.e., bleached).

We can perform OSL or IRSL dating on:

  • ceramics (broken pottery and a whole pot)
  • sediments
  • fire affected rocks

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project and sample preparation needs. For more information (e.g., sample collection, requirement for the analysis, turn-around time) on Luminescence dating contact:

Microbial Assessment

IIRMES can perform microbial assays for the detection of bacteria in water samples by enzyme substrate tests (IDEXX Colilert and Enterolert test kits). We can analyze water samples for:

  • Total coliforms (SM 9223B)
  • Escherichia coli (SM 9223B)
  • Enterococcus sp. (SM 9230D)

We can complement field water sampling for bacteria analyses by measuring water specific conductivity, DO, pH, turbidity, temperature with a handheld instrument (YSI Multiparameter Meter).

Prices will vary depending on the specifics of your project. For more information on microbial analyses contact: Varenka.Lorenzi@csulb.edu.

Stable Isotope Analysis

IIRMES is equipped with a Finnegan MAT Delta-XP Stable Isotope Gas-ratio Mass Spectrometer to provide reliable determination of carbon and nitrogen isotope values from bulk organic sediment samples.

For more information on stable isotope analyses contact: Lora.Stevens@csulb.edu.