Robotic Loading and Unloading Microwave Digestion Oven

The Clean Energy Innovation (CEI) Research Center of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has a requirement for the supply of a robotic loading and unloading microwave digestion oven. The digestion oven will be utilized to prepare solid samples with a multi-elemental composition for elemental quantification by Inductively Coupled Plasma – optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) as a part of the Critical Battery Materials Initiative (CBMI). The microwave oven must be equipped with a robotic system that can load standard sized vessels that have been queued in the system automatically with individualized digestion protocols ensuring the elemental composition of each sample is accurately digested into a liquid solution (a prerequisite for ICP-OES characterization). In addition, an automated platform allows for the analysis of samples at a rate far exceeding the capabilities of manual experimentation. Beyond the already planned projects involving this equipment, the applications of this equipment are broad and can be incorporated into many NRC-Mississauga (NRC-M) projects.