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Production and characterization of 60Fe standards for accelerator mass spectrometry.

ABSTRACT: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is one of the most sensitive analysis techniques to measure long-lived radionuclides, reaching detection limits for isotopic ratios down to 10-15-10-16 in special cases. Its application portfolio covers nearly every field of environmental research, considering processes in the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and the cosmosphere. Normally, AMS measures the content of isotopes in comparison to a validated standard. However, in some cases like for example 60Fe, well characterized standard materials are difficult to produce due to the extreme rareness of the isotope. We report here on the manufacturing of a set of 60Fe standards, obtained by processing irradiated copper from a beam dump of the high-power proton accelerator (HIPA) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). The isotopic ratios of the standards have been adjusted via a dilution series of a master solution, isotopic content of which has been characterized by Multi Collector-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). In total, we produced three samples with isotopic ratios of 1.037(6)·10-8, 1.125(7)·10-10 and 1.234 (7)·10-12, respectively. The latter had already been applied in three pioneering AMS studies investigating the remaining signal of injected matter of nearby super novae explosions in sediment archives.

SUBMITTER: Schumann D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6599215 | biostudies-other | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Production and characterization of 60Fe standards for accelerator mass spectrometry.

Schumann Dorothea D Kivel Niko N Dressler Rugard R

PloS one 20190628 6

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is one of the most sensitive analysis techniques to measure long-lived radionuclides, reaching detection limits for isotopic ratios down to 10-15-10-16 in special cases. Its application portfolio covers nearly every field of environmental research, considering processes in the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and the cosmosphere. Normally, AMS measures the content of isotopes in comparison to a validated standard. However, in some ca ...[more]

PMID: 31251777

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Project description:Biological and biomedical applications of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) use isotope ratio mass spectrometry to quantify minute amounts of long-lived radioisotopes such as (14)C. AMS target preparation involves first the oxidation of carbon (in sample of interest) to CO 2 and second the reduction of CO 2 to filamentous, fluffy, fuzzy, or firm graphite-like substances that coat a -400-mesh spherical iron powder (-400MSIP) catalyst. Until now, the quality of AMS targets has been variable; consequently, they often failed to produce robust ion currents that are required for reliable, accurate, precise, and high-throughput AMS for biological/biomedical applications. Therefore, we described our optimized method for reduction of CO 2 to high-quality uniform AMS targets whose morphology we visualized using scanning electron microscope pictures. Key features of our optimized method were to reduce CO 2 (from a sample of interest that provided 1 mg of C) using 100 +/- 1.3 mg of Zn dust, 5 +/- 0.4 mg of -400MSIP, and a reduction temperature of 500 degrees C for 3 h. The thermodynamics of our optimized method were more favorable for production of graphite-coated iron powders (GCIP) than those of previous methods. All AMS targets from our optimized method were of 100% GCIP, the graphitization yield exceeded 90%, and delta (13)C was -17.9 +/- 0.3 per thousand. The GCIP reliably produced strong (12)C (-) currents and accurate and precise F m values. The observed F m value for oxalic acid II NIST SRM deviated from its accepted F m value of 1.3407 by only 0.0003 +/- 0.0027 (mean +/- SE, n = 32), limit of detection of (14)C was 0.04 amol, and limit of quantification was 0.07 amol, and a skilled analyst can prepare as many as 270 AMS targets per day. More information on the physical (hardness/color), morphological (SEMs), and structural (FT-IR, Raman, XRD spectra) characteristics of our AMS targets that determine accurate, precise, and high-hroughput AMS measurement are in the companion paper.

Dataset Information

Production and characterization of 60Fe standards for accelerator mass spectrometry.

Publications

Production and characterization of 60Fe standards for accelerator mass spectrometry.

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