Precise Determination of Silicon Isotopes in Silicate Rock Reference Materials by MC‐ICP‐MS

Abstract

A HF‐free sample preparation method was used to purify silicon in twelve geological RMs. Silicon isotope compositions were determined using a Neptune instrument multi‐collector‐ICP‐MS in high‐resolution mode, which allowed separation of the silicon isotope plateaus from their interferences. A 1 μg g‐1 Mg spike was added to each sample and standard solution for online mass bias drift correction. δ30Si and δ29Si values are expressed in per mil (‰), relative to the NIST SRM 8546 (NBS‐28) international isotopic RM. The total variation of δ30Si in the geological reference samples analysed in this study ranged from ‐0.13‰ to ‐0.29‰. Comparison with δ29Si values shows that these isotopic fractionations were mass dependent. IRMM‐17 yielded a δ30Si value of ‐1.41 ± 0.07‰ (2s, n = 12) in agreement with previous data. The long‐term reproducibility for natural samples obtained on BHVO‐2 yielded δ30Si = ‐0.27 ± 0.08‰ (2s, n = 42) on a 12 month time scale. An in‐house Si reference sample was produced to check for the long‐term reproducibility of a mono‐elemental sample solution; this yielded a comparable uncertainty of ± 0.07‰ (2s, n = 24) over 5 months.