Repair of the Electron Probe Microanalyzer in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (EES): Advancing Research in Critical Energy Minerals and Earth Materials

The electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) is a standard workhorse microbeam instrument in Earth and Materials Science departments worldwide. An EPMA is essentially a scanning electron microscope with wavelength dispersive spectrometers for high resolution, low-detection-limit quantitative chemical analysis of solids. The EPMA housed in EES went offline two years ago due to a power disruption in the Mining and Minerals Resources Building (MMRB). Repair requires professional technical support that is beyond the expertise of the PI and UK A&S technical staff. The EPMA has long supported federally-funded research in EES, the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), Physics, and other programs on campus. The absence of a functioning EPMA requires researchers to visit or send samples to other labs for analysis, adding to costs, limiting productivity, and preventing student training opportunities. Funds are requested to support repair of the EPMA by engineers with expertise in maintenance of our specific make and relatively late model of EPMA. NSF- and DOE-funded research in EES and the KGS employing the EPMA is evaluating deposits of critical minerals that are sources of rare earth elements needed to build a domestic supply chain for manufacture of high-efficiency electric motors essential to the energy transition. REE-mineral sources include known deposits in the Coastal Plain province of South Carolina and potential deposits in southeastern Kentucky. The total requested ($60K) is for on-site repair services only as we have access to a sufficient supply of spare parts from decommissioned instruments in our user network.