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Carbon isotope effects during precipitation of barium carbonate: implications for environmental studies

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Abstract

Here we demonstrate that precipitation of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) to at pH 10.26, 11.38 and 12.11 does not cause measurable carbon isotope fractionation. However, NaOH solution prepared under standard laboratory procedure and used to increase pH value for precipitation of BaCO3 can be contaminated by atmospheric CO2. In our experiment, δ13C value in the contaminant DIC was −24.30‰, which resulted in decrease in the δ13C(DIC) value by 0.03, 0.07 and 0.22 at pH 10.26, 11.38 and 12.11, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

Great thanks are due to St. Halas for critical reading of the manuscript and G. Mayer for correction of English. This study was supported by grants 2439/W/ING/02 and KBN 5T12B02123. The first author is a holder of foreign scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science (edition 2005).

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Correspondence to Anna Szynkiewicz or Mariusz Orion Jędrysek.

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Szynkiewicz, A., Jędrysek, M.O. & Kurasiewicz, M. Carbon isotope effects during precipitation of barium carbonate: implications for environmental studies. Environ Chem Lett 4, 29–35 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-005-0027-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-005-0027-9

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