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

Silke Merchel (1, 2) , Regis Braucher (3) , Johannes Lachner (1, 2) , Georg Rugel (1)

1 HZDR - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
2 Universität Wien = University of Vienna
3 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement

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

Mots clés: AMS; Phenakite; Beryl; Carrier; Blank

Domaines: Géochimie; Chimie analytique

Silke Merchel, Regis Braucher, Johannes Lachner, Georg Rugel. Which is the best 9Be carrier for 10Be/9Be accelerator mass spectrometry?. MethodsX, 2021, 8, pp.101486. ⟨10.1016/j.mex.2021.101486⟩. ⟨hal-03320513⟩