Rapid 18 O analysis of small water and CO 2 samples using a continuous‐flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
High‐frequency throughput is often needed in isotopic studies in biological and medical fields. Here we report that high‐precision oxygen isotope ratio measurements of water (±0.13‰) were rapidly and routinely made on small samples (40–100 µL) using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer operated in continuous‐flow mode. Simple modifications to existing instrumentation allow for rapid manual analyses of dilute CO 2 (10% CO 2 /90% N 2 ), including the addition of a septum port and water trap prior to the gas chromatography (GC) column (elemental analyzer column in this study) and the extension of fused‐silica capillary tubing between the mass spectrometer source and the effluent tubing from the GC column (located within the CONFLO unit on Finnigan mass spectrometers). We routinely analyzed 20 small‐volume samples per hour using this technique, without sacrificing precision of the oxygen isotope ratio measurement. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: