Preliminary progress report on 10Be and 26Al sample preparation at the IHEG, CAGS AMS laboratory

Abstract

Based on previous experimental methods, this study explored the separation of quartz from other minerals and an extraction protocol for 10Be and 26Al. The results showed that paramagnetic minerals are removed with current multistage physical and chemical purification process. A dowex 50 W × 8 (H+) ion-exchange resin column was used for 10Be and 26Al chromatography. The optimal elution fractions for separating Be using 1.1 M HCl were 40–140 ml with a recovery rate of 83 % and those for separating Al using 6 M HCl were 170–230 ml with a recovery rate of only 33 %. The blank values of 10Be/9Be and 26Al/27Al ratios were 4.59E−15 and 2.49E−14, respectively. Two granite pebbles samples were analyzed using the experimental procedure established in this study, and the 10Be/9Be and 26Al/27Al ratios were (4.72 ± 0.23)E−13, (2.99 ± 0.22)E−13, and (7.28 ± 0.40)E−13, (2.83 ± 0.29)E−13, respectively.