14C Analysis and Sample Preparation at the New Bern Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA)

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The University of Bern has set up the new Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) equipped with an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) MICADAS (MIni CArbon Dating System) to continue its long history of 14 C analysis based on conventional counting. The new laboratory is designated to provide routine 14 C dating for archaeology, climate research, and other disciplines at the University of Bern and to develop new analytical systems coupled to the gas ion source for 14 C analysis of specific compounds or compound classes with specific physical properties. Measurements of reference standards and wood samples dated by dendrochronology demonstrate the quality of the 14 C analyses performed at the new laboratory.

A Continuous-Flow Gas Interface of a Thermal/Optical Analyzer With14C AMS for Source Apportionment of Atmospheric Aerosols

“…The 200 kV AMS MICADAS installed at the Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) uses a gas ion source, which accepts CO2 (Wacker et al 2013;Szidat et al 2014). …”

Online coupling of pure O2 thermo-optical methods – 14C AMS for source apportionment of carbonaceous aerosols

“…For this type of analysis, we take advantage of the new Accelerator Mass Spectrometer AMS facility MICADAS at University of Bern [3] and its gas-accepting ion source for the direct analysis of CO2 gas, eliminating the need to graphitize samples. The existing gas introduction system (GIS) [2] has been lending itself very well to the hyphenation with a variety of analytical instruments throughout several joint works between University of Bern and ETH Zurich [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Determining the Climate Relevance of Refuse-Derived Fuels – Validity of Literature-Derived Values in Comparison to Analysis-Derived Values

“…Around 10 mg of 16 RDF samples at a grain size of < 0.2 mm are combusted at 900°C and the carbon isotope 14 C is separated from the stable carbon isotopes 12 C and 13 C before the mass analysis (for details see Szidat et al, 2014). The biogenic content in the sample is given as percent of modern carbon, allowing the fossil carbon to be calculated.…”