Experimental Setup and Standardization of a Continuous Flow Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometer for Measuring Stable Isotopes of Carbon, Nitrogen and Sulfur in Environmental Samples

Abstract

We present here the experimental setup and standardization of a newly acquired stable isotope ratio mass-spectrometer (Isoprime 100, Isoprime® UK) coupled with elemental analyzer (Pyrocube, Elementar®-Germany) in a continuous flow mode, for the measurements of C, N and S isotopes in a variety of natural as well as synthetic organics and sulfur containing solid samples. We have calibrated our instrument using a suite of certified international standards supplied by International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna and cross-checked against several in-house laboratory standards used by other institutions of international repute. A synthetic organic compound Sulfanilamide was continuously used along with international standards to develop an in-house internal laboratory standard for the accurate and precise isotopic measurements. Important components contributing to the overall uncertainty of the isotopic measurements such as blank contributions, amount effect and response of mass-spectrometric current against thermal conductivity detector were performed using several aliquots of ε-Amino-n-caproic acid and sulfanilamide (in-house) standards. Both short and long term variabilities in the measure isotopic data were assessed using our in-house laboratory standard Sulfanilamide. Overall estimated uncertainties of C, N and S isotopic measurements are better than 0.2, 0.2 and 0.3 ‰, respectively; which are well within the recommended limits of aforementioned isotopic data.