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A Minivial for Small-Sample 14C Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Lauri Kaihola
Affiliation:
Instrument Research Department, Wallac Oy, P. O. Box 10, SF-20101 Turku, Finland
Hannu Kojola
Affiliation:
Instrument Research Department, Wallac Oy, P. O. Box 10, SF-20101 Turku, Finland
Aarne Heinonen
Affiliation:
Instrument Research Department, Wallac Oy, P. O. Box 10, SF-20101 Turku, Finland
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Abstract

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We have designed a 0.3-ml Teflon minivial for 14C dating of small samples in a liquid scintillation counter. We use a special adapter of standard vial size to optimize the position of the vial with respect to the phototubes and to intercept the light path between them, thus reducing optical cross-talk. Better performance can be achieved by using customized vials than by diluting small samples for counting in large vials. We have achieved counting efficiencies up to 80% in 0.3-ml vials typically with 0.05 cpm background.

Type
I. Sample Preparation and Measurement Techniques
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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