Performance of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for 129I using AgI–AgCl carrier-free coprecipitation

Abstract

129I has been successfully applied as tracer in environmental, geological, and oceanographic research. For samples with low stable iodine concentration and ultra low level 129I, the sample preparation technique to separate iodine prior to AMS measurement has been a bottleneck, limiting the applicability of 129I. We have reported a carrier-free method, using coprecipitation, to avoid the potential introduction of 129I through the use of stable iodine carrier iodine. In this work, the detection limit and the analytical uncertainty of this method are investigated and minimum sample amount required to obtain reliable analytical results are estimated. The method is validated with a series of samples in ranges of known iodine concentrations and 129I/127I ratios. The results confirm our previous conclusion that an AMS target containing 5.0μg iodine can be used for analyzing samples with 129I/127I>10−12, and that for samples with 129I/127I<10−13 more than 25μg iodine is necessary.