Isotopic fractionation during pretreatment for accelerator mass spetrometer measurement of (D3C)2O containing 14C produced by nuclear reaction

Abstract

A (D3C)2O (d6-acetone) target was irradiated with semi-monoenergetic neutrons generated from 9Be(p,n)9B reaction with 20 MeV protons to convert 13C and oxygen nuclides in the target into 14C. With both liquid scintillation counting (LSC) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) we measured the (D3C)2O (d6-acetone) liquid targets, which were combustible and easy to afford CO2 for the AMS measurements. The 14C yield measured by the LSC method turned out to be 80 times larger than that by the AMS method. This large discrepancy may be attributed to the loss of 14C atoms during the sample pretreatment in the AMS method such as combustion and cryogenic trapping of CO2. It means that 14C newly produced by nuclear reactions can exist in various chemical forms, i.e., C3D6O, CO, CO2, hydrocarbons, etc., and a simple sample pretreatment right after production can cause serious isotopic fractionation. Therefore, using the AMS method, extreme caution in sample pretreatment should be exercised when the 14C yield produced immediately by nuclear reaction is measured.