Preliminary report on small-mass graphitization for radiocarbon dating using EA-AGE3 at JAEA-AMS-TONO

Watanabe, Takahiro   ; Fujita, Natsuko  ; Matsubara, Akihiro; Miyake, Masayasu*; Nishio, Tomohiro*; Ishizaka, Chika; Kokubu, Yoko   

Small-mass radiocarbon dating less than 0.1 mg carbon has been developed by Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and manual preparation techniques using the vacuum glass lines. Because geological samples are limited for the dating in many cases, preparation techniques should be improved for small samples and high efficiency analysis. For radiocarbon dating of geological and other organic samples, small-mass graphitization of international standard reference materials (ca. 0.1 and 0.05 mg carbon) was evaluated using the elemental analyzer and automated graphitization equipment 3 (EA-AGE3; IonPlus AG) in our study. Additionally, this paper presents the first data for the small samples by the EA-AGE3. The average radiocarbon concentration of the small-mass international standards (NIST-SRM4990C, IAEA-C5, and C7) prepared by the EA-AGE3 were agreement with the consensus values within 2. Therefore, small-mass graphitization using the EA-AGE3 can be adapted for AMS radiocarbon measurements in our case (down to ca. 0.05 mg carbon).