Study on the removal of interferences for the determination of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotopic ratio in petroleum drill-hole water samples using isotope dilution – inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID – ICP-MS)

Abstract

87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratio is one of the useful tools that can authenticate the original source of the natural products from the earth-created and/or geological processes. However, the effect of interferences in petroleum drill-holes water sample such as thickness of sample matrix or isotopic signal of 87Rb might cause the low precision of 87Sr/86Sr determination using quadrupole inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS). The elimination of these mentioned effects was thus studied by using the ion - exchange chromatography. Calcium in sample matrix was separated on anionite column (Bio-Rad AG1-X8 resin) in methanol medium with the high efficiency while rubidium was removed from strontium on cation exchange resin (Bio-Rad AG50-X8) with strontium recovery over 99%. The isotope dilution technique with 86Sr - enriched isotopic standard solution was used for the control of separation process. The 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratio was thus determined using ICP-MS with the signal correction by a strontium isotopic ratio standard reference material (NIST SRM 987).