Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:30:40.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sample Chemistry for the Oxford High Energy Mass Spectrometer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Richard Gillespie  and
Robert E M Hedges
Richard Gillespie
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art Oxford University, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England
Robert E M Hedges
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art Oxford University, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Chemical pretreatment procedures for the decontamination, extraction, and isolation of organic materials for 14C dating using the Oxford accelerator system are described. Specific details are given for the isolation and chromatographic purification of amino acids from bone and tooth collagen, of lipids from sediments, and of cellulose and glucose from wood, paper, and textiles. A description is also given of the apparatus used for the routine preparation of 1 to 5mg graphite samples on tantalum wire, for use in the accelerator ion source.

The high energy mass spectrometer (HEMS) approach to 14C dating allows the use of very small samples in the low milligram range. Sample pretreatment and decontamination procedures can be both more vigorous and more selective than those used by conventional dating laboratories. Specific chemical compounds can be isolated from archaeologic or geologic samples; such compounds may be characteristic of particular source materials and, hence, provide more detailed information than is generally possible using bulk organic samples. The Oxford Radiocarbon Unit has concentrated on three sample types that represent the kind of material we expect to work on initially: bone, lake sediment, and wood.

Type
VIII. Technical Aspects of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 25 , Issue 2: 11th International Radiocarbon Conference , 1983 , pp. 771 - 774
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Birks, HH, 1980, Plant macrofossils in lake sediments: Archiv Hydrobiol Beih, v 15, p 1–60.Google Scholar
Brooks, PW, Eglinton, G, Gaskell, SJ, McHugh, DJ, Manwell, JR, and Philip, RP, 1976, Lipids of recent sediments Part I. Straight chain hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids of some temperate lacustrine and sub-tropical lagoonal/tidal flat sediments: Chem Geol v 18, p 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cranwell, PA, 1973, Chain length distribution of n-alkanes from lake sediments in relation to post-glacial environmental change: Freshwater Biol, v 5, p 259–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, REM, Wand, JO, and White, NR, 1980, The production of C- beams for radiocarbon dating with accelerators: Nuclear Instruments and Methods, v 173, p 409–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoopes, EA, Peltzer, ET, and Bada, JL, 1978, Determination of amino acid enantiomeric ratios by gas chromatography of the N-trifluoroacetyl-L-prolylpeptide methyl esters: Jour Chromatographic Sci, v 16, p 556–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, RE and Slota, PS, 1979, Fraction studies on marine shell and bone samples for radiocarbon dating, in Berger, R and Suess, HE, eds, Radiocarbon dating, Internatl 14C conf, 9th, Proc: Berkeley, Univ California Press, p 442–432.Google Scholar
Wand, JO (ms) 1981, Microsample preparation for radiocarbon dating: Unpub DPhil thesis, Univ Oxford.Google Scholar
White, NR, in press, The inverted spherical ionizer sputter ion source (IS3): Nuclear Instruments and Methods, in press.Google Scholar