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Methods of Cosmochemical Analysis

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Handbook of Nuclear Chemistry

Abstract

Some radionuclides, like 10Be (T 1/2 = 1.5 Ma), 14C (T 1/2 = 5,730 years), 26Al (T 1/2 = 0.716 Ma), 53Mn (T 1/2 = 3.7 Ma), and 60Fe (T 1/2 = 1.5 Ma), 146Sm (T 1/2 = 103 Ma), 182Hf (T 1/2 = 9 Ma), 244Pu (T 1/2 = 80 Ma) are either being produced continuously by the interaction of cosmic rays (CR) or might have been produced in supernovae millions of years ago. Analysis of these radionuclides in ultratrace scale has strong influence in almost all branches of sciences, starting from archaeology to biology, nuclear physics to astrophysics. However, measurement of these radionuclides appeared as a borderline problem exploiting their decay properties because of scarcity in natural archives and long half-life. The one and only way seemed to be that of mass measurement. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is the best suited for this purpose. Apart from AMS, other mass measurement techniques like inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), resonant laser ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS), secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS) have also been used with limited sensitivity and approach.

This chapter gives an essence of measurement of cosmogenic or supernova-produced radionuclides with various mass spectrometric techniques with special emphasis on AMS. The challenges of AMS measurement like isobaric interference, and development of chemical methods for separation of isobars have also been discussed. An abridged discussion has been made on the other techniques like ICP-MS, TIMS, RIMS, and SIMS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Sciences Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700064, India

    S. Lahiri & M. Maiti

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  1. S. Lahiri
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  2. M. Maiti
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Correspondence to S. Lahiri .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, 32, Budapest, 1518, Hungary

    Attila Vértes (Professor Emeritus) & Sándor Nagy (Professor) (Professor Emeritus) &  (Professor)

  2. Chemical Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Pusztaszeri út 59-67, Budapest, 1025, Hungary

    Zoltán Klencsár (Dr.) (Dr.)

  3. Institute of Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 51, Debrecen, 4001, Hungary

    Rezső G. Lovas (Professor) (Professor)

  4. Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Fritz-Strassmann-Weg 2, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Frank Rösch (Professor) (Professor)

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Lahiri, S., Maiti, M. (2011). Methods of Cosmochemical Analysis. In: Vértes, A., Nagy, S., Klencsár, Z., Lovas, R.G., Rösch, F. (eds) Handbook of Nuclear Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0720-2_54

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