Which is the best ⁹Be carrier for ¹⁰Be/⁹Be accelerator mass spectrometry?

Author(s)

Silke Merchel, Régis Braucher, Johannes Lachner, Georg Rugel

Abstract

Commercial

⁹Be solutions used for chemical preparation of samples for accelerator mass spectrometry contain the cosmogenic long-lived radionuclide

¹⁰Be at elevated but different

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be levels. Within a systematic study of recently produced solutions, comparison to published data and new data on customised solutions from minerals, we recommend - if no customised solution is available - the

⁹Be solutions from Australian Chemical Reagents (ACR) or from LGC. They contain

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be at the 3.4 × 10

⁻¹⁵ level, which is still suitable for the majority of Earth science applications, compared to customised solutions at the 10

⁻¹⁶ level for lowest-level studies. Commercial solutions from Scharlab having different lot numbers, i.e. an identification number assigned to a particular lot of material from a single manufacturer, vary in

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be by up to a factor of nine. Hence, it seems an advisable strategy to buy a bigger quantity of a single production batch (such as 10 × 100 ml bottles of

⁹Be at 1 g l

⁻¹) and have them tested once at any AMS facility before first use. • The best

⁹Be carrier for low-level

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be applications is a customised one from minerals like phenakite. • The best

⁹Be carriers for medium- and high-level

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be applications are currently from Australian Chemical Reagents (ACR) or from LGC. • As

⁹Be carriers from Scharlab of different batches (LOT) contain

¹⁰Be/

⁹Be at different levels, it is advisable to buy a bigger number of bottles of the same LOT of commercial carriers after being identified to have reasonably low isotope ratios.

Organisation(s)

Isotope Physics

External organisation(s)

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Aix-Marseille Université

Journal

MethodsX

Volume

8

No. of pages

6

ISSN

2215-0161

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2021.101486

Publication date

08-2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103014 Nuclear physics, 104002 Analytical chemistry

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Medical Laboratory Technology, Clinical Biochemistry

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/42de9d54-3ff8-43c7-b726-68d415f73955