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

摘要

Commercial9Be solutions used for chemical preparation of samples for accelerator mass spectrometry contain the cosmogenic long-lived radionuclide10Be at elevated but different10Be/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 - the9Be solutions from Australian Chemical Reagents (ACR) or from LGC. They contain10Be/9Be at the 3.4?×?10?15level, which is still suitable for the majority of Earth science applications, compared to customised solutions at the 10?16level 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 in10Be/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 of9Be at 1 g l?1) and have them tested once at any AMS facility before first use.?The best9Be carrier for low-level10Be/9Be applications is a customised one from minerals like phenakite.?The best9Be carriers for medium- and high-level10Be/9Be applications are currently from Australian Chemical Reagents (ACR) or from LGC.?As9Be carriers from Scharlab of different batches (LOT) contain10Be/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.