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Direct Absorption Method and Liquid Scintillation Counting for Radiocarbon Measurements in Organic Carbon from Sediments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ionut Faurescu ,
Carmen Varlam ,
Ioan Stefanescu ,
Stela Cuna ,
Irina Vagner ,
Denisa Faurescu  and
Diana Bogdan
Ionut Faurescu*
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
Carmen Varlam
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
Ioan Stefanescu
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
Stela Cuna
Affiliation:
Institute for Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Irina Vagner
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
Denisa Faurescu
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
Diana Bogdan
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Rm. Valcea, Romania
*
Corresponding author. Email: ifaurescu@icsi.ro
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Abstract

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In this paper, we investigate a procedure for radiocarbon determination in forest soil and slurry from lake sediments. The total carbon in these samples can be both inorganic and organic. Inorganic carbon can be analyzed in a straightforward manner using the direct absorption method by sample acidification and CO2 capture. For organic carbon, we investigate a hybrid method using the wet-oxidation of organic carbon followed by direct absorption. To evaluate the wet-oxidation processes with potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4), we performed several experiments using different quantities of soil and sediments in order to establish the quantity of CO2 for each type of sample. The 2 methods offer comparable results for 14C-specific activity (about 0.234 ± 0.024 Bq/g C), values that are expected for these kinds of samples. We also investigated the possibility of isotopic fractionation occurring during CO2 production from raw material by measuring δ13C levels from samples and obtained CO2.

Type
Methods, Applications, and Developments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 794 - 799
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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