AMS radiocarbon analysis of microsamples
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Date
1997-02-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation and Australian Museum
Abstract
The ANTARES AMS Centre has two chemistry laboratories dedicated to preparing targets for measurement. Target preparation encompasses a variety of activities ranging from the curation of incoming samples to the numerous steps involved in the purification and processing of dissimilar samples. One of the two laboratories is set up for the physical and chemical pretreatment of 14C samples. Treatments include cleaning by sonification, sorting, grinding and sieving, and chemical treatments such as the standard AAA treatment, and solvent extraction. Combustion and graphitisation are also carried out in this laboratory. The second laboratory is a clean room and is dedicated to the combustion, hydrolysis and graphitisation of 14C samples as well as processing targets for the other isotopes. Combustion is achieved by heating the sample to 900 deg C in the presence of CuO, the resulting gas is purified by passing over Ag and Cu wire at 600 deg C. Graphitisation is carried out by reducing the CO{sub 2} with an iron catalyst (600 deg C) in the presence of zinc (400 deg C) and a small amount of hydrogen. Samples such as charcoal, shell, bone, wood, sediment, seawater and groundwater, containing 0.3-1 mg or more of original carbon, are processed routinely for radiocarbon analysis. The current 14C chemistry background for 1 mg carbon is approx. 0.3 percent of modern carbon (pMC) enabling materials` dating up to 45 000 BP.
Description
This item is held by ANSTO Library and is shelved at DDC 930.1/2(RSCA).
Keywords
Mass spectroscopy, ANSTO, ANTARES Tandem Accelerator, Carbon 14, Laboratories, Nuclear facilities
Citation
Jacobsen, G. E., Hua, Q., Tarshishi, J., Fink, D., Hotchkis, M. A. C., Lawson, E. M., Smith, A. M. & Tuniz, C. (1997). AMS radiocarbon analysis of microsamples. Paper presented at the Sixth Australasian Archaeometry Conference: Australasian Archaeometry - retrospectives for the new millennium, Sydney (Australia), 10-13 Feb 1997. In Conference Handbook, Paper No. 36.