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

Abstract

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

Mud redeposition during river incision as a factor affecting authigenic 10Be/9Be dating: Early Pleistocene large mammal fossil‐bearing site Nová Vieska, eastern Danube Basin

“…The replicability and consistency of both approaches was tested, with positive results. The subsequent processing involved the addition of 300 mg (first group) or 450 mg (second group) of the Scharlau beryllium ICP standard solution (1000 ppm) with 10 Be/ 9 Be ratios in the range of 6–8 × 10 −15 (Merchel et al , 2021). Samples were evaporated and resin chemistry was applied to separate beryllium from other elements present in the authigenic phase (Merchel and Herpers, 1999).…”

Application of the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating to constrain the age of a long-lived lake and its regression in an isolated intermontane basin: The case of Late Miocene Lake Turiec, Western Carpathians

“…The same aliquot solution also underwent measurements of selected element concentrations. An amount of ~450 µg of beryllium carrier solution was added to the remaining leached solution (Scharlau, 1000 ppm; 10 Be/ 9 Be ratio of 7-8 × 10 -15 (Merchel et al, 2021)). Spiked samples were evaporated, and beryllium was separated from other elements in the sample using column chromatography (Merchel and Herpers, 1999).…”