- search hit 1 of 1
Attempts to understand potential deficiencies in chemical procedures for AMS: Cleaning and dissolving quartz for Be-10 and Al-26 analysis
- The purity of the analysed samples (e.g. quartz) with respect to chemical composition and radionuclide contamination is essential for geomorphologic applications using so-called terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCNs). To guarantee this, numerous cleaning and dissolution procedures have been developed. At the DREsden Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (DREAMS) facility, we also work on enhancing the chemical quartz-enrichment methodology from bulk rock and dissolution of quartz. Repeated exposure of the bulk material to acid mixtures (HCl/H2SiF6) at room temperature for cleaning and its monitoring by optical microscopy works for most quartz-rich samples. The quartz dissolution in HF under rather mild conditions (at room temperature on a shaker-table) has the advantage to leave difficult-to-dissolve minerals (e.g., tourmaline, zircon, rutile, sillimanite, kyanite, chromite, corundum), not separated by other physical methods before, as residue. Our comparison with a high-temperature dissolution method (in a microwave) indicates an additionalThe purity of the analysed samples (e.g. quartz) with respect to chemical composition and radionuclide contamination is essential for geomorphologic applications using so-called terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCNs). To guarantee this, numerous cleaning and dissolution procedures have been developed. At the DREsden Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (DREAMS) facility, we also work on enhancing the chemical quartz-enrichment methodology from bulk rock and dissolution of quartz. Repeated exposure of the bulk material to acid mixtures (HCl/H2SiF6) at room temperature for cleaning and its monitoring by optical microscopy works for most quartz-rich samples. The quartz dissolution in HF under rather mild conditions (at room temperature on a shaker-table) has the advantage to leave difficult-to-dissolve minerals (e.g., tourmaline, zircon, rutile, sillimanite, kyanite, chromite, corundum), not separated by other physical methods before, as residue. Our comparison with a high-temperature dissolution method (in a microwave) indicates an additional amount of interfering elements, such as in average about 3 mg of Ti, more than 7 mg of Al, and about 22 mu g of Be (for 50 g SiO2), is added to the sample, hence showing the superiority of our mild method. This way, we reduce problems for chemistry and AMS, but also ensure better comparability to production rates of cleaner stoichiometric quartz from calibration sites.…
Author details: | Silke MerchelORCiDGND, Andreas Gärtner, Sabrina Beutner, Bodo BookhagenORCiDGND, Amelie Chabilan |
---|---|
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2019.02.007 |
ISSN: | 0168-583X |
ISSN: | 1872-9584 |
Title of parent work (English): | Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research : a journal on accelerators, instrumentation and techniques applied to research in nuclear and atomic physics, materials science and related fields in physics, Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | Amsterdam |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2019 |
Publication year: | 2019 |
Release date: | 2020/11/09 |
Tag: | Accelerator mass spectrometry; In-situ; Quartz; Residue; Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide |
Volume: | 455 |
Number of pages: | 7 |
First page: | 293 |
Last Page: | 299 |
Funding institution: | Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftGerman Research Foundation (DFG) [DFG LI 521/32-1] |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik |
Peer review: | Referiert |