Preparation line for stable carbon isotope meassurements on organic Material

The meassurement of the C-13/C-12 relation of organic carbon is carried out on a Finnigan MAT Delta Plus connected to an Heraeus Elemental analyser.
The sample is combusted in a quarz-tube filled with cer oxide and led through a second tube filled with copper to reduce nitrogen oxides.

FAQs about the preparation of organic carbon samples:

1.) How much material is needed?
The amount of carbon needed for a meassurement is 300 microgramm

2.) What is the accuracy of the meassurements?
The long-term standard deviation of our internal standard is < 0.1‰

3) Which standards do you use?
We use material from an organic rich deep sea sediment which is calibrated against NBS 22 and IAEA-C-6 as internal standard.

4) Do the samples need any pre-treatment
The samples must be decarbonized and packed into tin- or silver boats. The sample size should not exceed 80mg - if it does, it has to be divided into two samples.