Preparation Methods of μg Carbon Samples for 14C Measurements

Author(s)

Peter Steier, Jakob Liebl, Walter Kutschera, Eva Maria Wild, Robin Golser

Abstract

Systematic investigations and experience from several application projects on small carbon samples over a number of years have resulted in measuring the radiocarbon content of 10 μg C samples with an overall precision of typically 1%. A substantial reduction of the carbon contamination during graphitization was achieved, resulting in 31±30 ng modern and <100 ng

¹⁴C-free carbon. Thus, graphitization is no longer the limiting factor because earlier sample preparation steps usually introduce much larger contamination. The method has been extended to a variety of materials and applied to various projects. Realistic conditions for procedure development can only be achieved in the context of applications on true samples; methods developed are the lyophilization of samples in solution, combustion, ultraviolet oxidation, or carbonate hydrolysis with phosphoric acid, which allows to prepare samples for a wide range of applications. Insights gained from systematic investigations and from real applications are presented.

Organisation(s)

Isotope Physics

External organisation(s)

PTW-Freiburg Physikalisch-Technische Werkstätten Dr. Pychlau GmbH

Journal

Radiocarbon

Volume

59

Pages

803-814

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0033-8222

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2016.94

Publication date

06-2017

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103014 Nuclear physics

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Earth and Planetary Sciences(all), Archaeology

Portal url

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/preparation-methods-of-g-carbon-samples-for-14c-measurements(7f16a964-acec-413f-9f2f-b02f5df1e182).html