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Target Preparation for Continuous Flow Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Robert J. Schneider ,
J. M. Hayes ,
Karl F. Von Reden ,
Ann P. McNichol ,
T. J. Eglinton  and
J. S. C. Wills
Robert J. Schneider
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543 USA
J. M. Hayes
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543 USA
Karl F. Von Reden
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543 USA
Ann P. McNichol
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543 USA
T. J. Eglinton
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543 USA
J. S. C. Wills
Affiliation:
Chalk River Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River, Ontario K0J 1J0 Canada
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Abstract

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For very small samples, it is difficult to prepare graphitic targets that will yield a useful and steady sputtered ion beam. Working with materials separated by preparative capillary gas chromatography, we have succeeded with amounts as small as 20 μg C. This seems to be a practical limit, as it involves 1) multiple chromatographic runs with trapping of effluent fractions, 2) recovery and combustion of the fractions, 3) graphitization and 4) compression of the resultant graphite/cobalt matrix into a good sputter target. Through such slow and intricate work, radiocarbon ages of lignin derivatives and hydrocarbons from coastal sediments have been determined. If this could be accomplished as an “online” measurement by flowing the analytes directly into a microwave gas ion source, with a carrier gas, then the number of processing steps could be minimized. Such a system would be useful not just for chromatographic effluents, but for any gaseous material, such as CO2 produced from carbonates. We describe tests using such an ion source.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 1: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference 16-20,1997 Groningen , 1997 , pp. 95 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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