A rapid on-line technique for determination of oxygen isotope composition of nitrogen-containing organic matter and water

✍ Scribed by G. D. Farquhar; B. K. Henry; J. M. Styles

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 179 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0951-4198
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(199709)11:14<1554::aid-rcm980>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

A rapid, inexpensive on-line technique for the analysis of stable isotopes of oxygen in organic matter and water is described. The oxygen in the sample is pyrolysed over nickelized carbon using a modified Unterzaucher technique and converted to carbon monoxide. Separation of the CO from N 2 by gas chromatography before mass spectrometric measurement of the 18 O/ 16 O ratio allows application of the technique to nitrogen containing samples. The precision of measurements is generally as good as, or better than, that obtained with other methods (σ = 0.2‰ for n = 10). A major advantage of the method is its speed, each sample taking less than 7 minutes to analyse. The technique improves on those used previously, in being applicable to a wide range of samples including N-containing organic matter and water and in being rapid, simple and inexpensive while retaining precision.