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A HIGHLY PORTABLE AND INEXPENSIVE FIELD SAMPLING KIT FOR RADIOCARBON ANALYSIS OF CARBON DIOXIDE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2021

Mark H Garnett Open the ORCID record for Mark H Garnett [Opens in a new window] ,
Josephine-Anne Newton  and
Thomas C Parker
Mark H Garnett*
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, NEIF Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, United Kingdom
Josephine-Anne Newton
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, NEIF Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, United Kingdom
Thomas C Parker
Affiliation:
University of Stirling School of Natural Sciences, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Stirling, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: mark.garnett@glasgow.ac.uk
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Abstract

Radiocarbon (14C) analysis of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be extremely useful in carbon cycle studies because it provides unique information that can infer the age and source of this greenhouse gas. Cartridges containing the CO2-adsorbing zeolite molecular sieve are small and highly portable, which makes them more suitable for field campaigns in remote locations compared to some other CO2 collection methods. However, sampling with molecular sieve cartridges usually requires additional equipment, such as an infrared gas analyser, which can reduce portability and pose limitations due to power demands. In addition, 14C analysis of CO2 is increasingly being used in field experiments which require high numbers of replicate CO2 collections, placing extra pressure on an expensive and cumbersome collection apparatus. We therefore designed and built a molecular sieve CO2 sampling kit that utilizes a small, low power CO2 sensor. We demonstrate the reliability of the new kit for the collection of CO2 samples for 14C analysis in a series of laboratory and field tests. This inexpensive sampling kit is small, light-weight, highly portable, and has low power demands, making it particularly useful for field campaigns in remote and inaccessible locations.

Keywords

carbon dioxidemolecular sieveradiocarbonsampling kit
Type
Technical Note
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 63 , Issue 4: Featuring: CLARa Proceedings of the 1st Latin American Radiocarbon Conference , August 2021 , pp. 1355 - 1368
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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