Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory
Recent progress in preparation/combustion of submilligram organic samples at our laboratories is presented. Routine methods had to be modified/refined to achieve acceptable and consistent procedural blanks for organic samples smaller than 1000 μg C. A description of the process leading to a modified...
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0033822200042193 2024-03-03T08:45:46+00:00 Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory Ertunç, Tanya Xu, Sheng Bryant, Charlotte L Currie, Margaret Freeman, Stewart P H T Maden, Colin Murray, Callum 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200042193 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200042193 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Radiocarbon volume 49, issue 2, page 271-280 ISSN 0033-8222 1945-5755 General Earth and Planetary Sciences Archeology journal-article 2007 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200042193 2024-02-08T08:34:35Z Recent progress in preparation/combustion of submilligram organic samples at our laboratories is presented. Routine methods had to be modified/refined to achieve acceptable and consistent procedural blanks for organic samples smaller than 1000 μg C. A description of the process leading to a modified combustion method for smaller organic samples is given in detail. In addition to analyzing different background materials, the influence of different chemical reagents on the overall radiocarbon background level was investigated, such as carbon contamination arising from copper oxide of different purities and from different suppliers. Using the modified combustion method, small amounts of background materials and known-age standard IAEA-C5 were individually combusted to CO 2 . Below 1000 μg C, organic background levels follow an inverse mass dependency when combusted with the modified method, increasing from 0.13 ± 0.05 pMC up to 1.20 ± 0.04 pMC for 80 μg C. Results for a given carbon mass were lower for combustion of etched Iceland spar calcite mineral, indicating that part of the observed background of bituminous coal was probably introduced by handling the material in atmosphere prior to combustion. Using the modified combustion method, the background-corrected activity of IAEA-C5 agreed to within 2 σ of the consensus value of 23.05 pMC down to a sample mass of 55 μg C. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Cambridge University Press Radiocarbon 49 2 271 280 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Archeology |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Archeology Ertunç, Tanya Xu, Sheng Bryant, Charlotte L Currie, Margaret Freeman, Stewart P H T Maden, Colin Murray, Callum Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Archeology |
description |
Recent progress in preparation/combustion of submilligram organic samples at our laboratories is presented. Routine methods had to be modified/refined to achieve acceptable and consistent procedural blanks for organic samples smaller than 1000 μg C. A description of the process leading to a modified combustion method for smaller organic samples is given in detail. In addition to analyzing different background materials, the influence of different chemical reagents on the overall radiocarbon background level was investigated, such as carbon contamination arising from copper oxide of different purities and from different suppliers. Using the modified combustion method, small amounts of background materials and known-age standard IAEA-C5 were individually combusted to CO 2 . Below 1000 μg C, organic background levels follow an inverse mass dependency when combusted with the modified method, increasing from 0.13 ± 0.05 pMC up to 1.20 ± 0.04 pMC for 80 μg C. Results for a given carbon mass were lower for combustion of etched Iceland spar calcite mineral, indicating that part of the observed background of bituminous coal was probably introduced by handling the material in atmosphere prior to combustion. Using the modified combustion method, the background-corrected activity of IAEA-C5 agreed to within 2 σ of the consensus value of 23.05 pMC down to a sample mass of 55 μg C. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ertunç, Tanya Xu, Sheng Bryant, Charlotte L Currie, Margaret Freeman, Stewart P H T Maden, Colin Murray, Callum |
author_facet |
Ertunç, Tanya Xu, Sheng Bryant, Charlotte L Currie, Margaret Freeman, Stewart P H T Maden, Colin Murray, Callum |
author_sort |
Ertunç, Tanya |
title |
Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
title_short |
Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
title_full |
Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
title_fullStr |
Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
title_full_unstemmed |
Investigation into Background Levels of Small Organic Samples at the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory |
title_sort |
investigation into background levels of small organic samples at the nerc radiocarbon laboratory |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200042193 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200042193 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Radiocarbon volume 49, issue 2, page 271-280 ISSN 0033-8222 1945-5755 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200042193 |
container_title |
Radiocarbon |
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49 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
271 |
op_container_end_page |
280 |
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1792501419520032768 |