Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This proposal is to acquire a new scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) detector to replace the current system that has ceased functioning since February 2020. This new equipment will support several research programs funded by NSERC in biological, chemical and geological oceanography, and HQP training activities at the Institut des sciences de la mer (ISMER) and at the Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Geography, and Engineering at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR). The current SEM-EDS was used by more than 12 researchers and collaborators (2894 hrs of use) over the last 13 years and more than 55 highly qualified personnel (HQPs) were trained at using the equipment. In addition, the results obtained on sample analyses have led to over 32 peer-reviewed publications in high-ranked journals. The current equipment ceased functioning due to failure of major electronic components that are no longer manufactured, which substantially delay our research programs. Therefore, we are seeking funds to acquire a new SEM-EDS system to pursue our sample analyses. The requested equipment consists of a SEC SNE4500M PLUS tabletop SEM equipped with a Bruker XFlash 630 EDS detector. This SEM allows observing/measuring biological and mineral specimens, and other materials (e.g. contaminants, microplastics, and functional materials) and mapping their elemental composition. With its stage rotatable at 360° and tiltable at 90°, the instrument permits observing the maximum surface area of the specimens being analyzed. Such equipment is essential to our research work and will be located in the laboratory of particle analysis at UQAR. It will support several multidisciplinary research programs in oceanography, chemistry and engineering, all of which will make ample use of the equipment: Document the evolution of primary production in the North Water Polynya (northern Baffin Bay) over the last 2000 years; Characterizing the distribution and morphology of toxic plankton and monitor the arrival of non-indigenous species in the Canadian Arctic; Characterizing the occurrence and impacts of microplastic in the St. Lawrence Estuary and in Arctic Lakes in Nunavut and Yukon; Develop bio-based composites to trap contaminants in wastewater. The requested instrument is therefore paramount to realize these multidisciplinary research programs, but also for the training of 20 HQPs involved in these programs. The equipment will also be used to train undergraduate and graduate students as part of their course load. Finally, it will help UQAR and Canada to consolidate their support to national (ArcticNet, MEOPAR, Odyssée Saint-Laurent) and international (ArcTrain) research programs in which the SEM-EDS is used.