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Published July 2012 | Published
Journal Article Open

Improvements to 232-thorium, 230-thorium, and 231-protactinium analysis in seawater arising from GEOTRACES intercalibration

Abstract

The GEOTRACES program requires the analysis of large numbers of seawater samples for ^(232)Th, ^(230)Th, and ^(231)Pa. During the GEOTRACES international intercalibration exercise, we encountered unexpected difficulties with recovery and contamination of these isotopes, ^(232)Th in particular. Experiments were carried out to identify the source of these issues, leading to a more streamlined and efficient procedure. The two particular problems that we identified and corrected were (1) frits in columns supplied by Bio-Rad Laboratories caused loss of Th during column chemistry and (2) new batches of AG1-X8 resin supplied by Bio-Rad Laboratories released more than 100 pg of ^(232)Th during elution of sample. To improve yields and blanks, we implemented a series of changes including switching to Eichrom anion exchange resin (100-200 μm mesh) and Environmental Express columns. All Th and Pa samples were analyzed on a Neptune multi-collector inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) using peak hopping of ^(230)Th and ^(229)Th on the central SEM, with either ^(232)Th, ^(236)U (or both) used to monitor for beam intensity. We used in-house laboratory standards to check for machine reproducibility, and the GEOTRACES intercalibration standard to check for accuracy. Over a 1-y period, the 2 s.d. reproducibility on the GEOTRACES SW STD 2010-1 was 2.5% for ^(230)Th, 1.8% for ^(232)Th, and 4% for ^(231)Pa. The lessons learned during this intercalibration process will be of value to those analyzing U-Th-Pa and rare earth elements as part of the GEOTRACES program as well as those using U-series elements in other applications that require high yields and low blanks, such as geochronology.

Additional Information

© 2012 by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc. We would like to thank Jess Adkins for supplying Th standards, Kuo-Fang Huang, and Alison Criscitiello for help in the lab, and Terence O'Brien (Eichrom Technologies) for technical advice. We also would like to thank Jerzy Blusztajn and Scot Birdwhistell for their support in the WHOI Plasma Facility. Financial support was provided by NSF GEOTRACES Award Number 0926860 and NSF-EAR 81971400. This paper is part of the Intercalibration in Chemical Oceanography special issue of L&O Methods that was supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Chemical Oceanography Program (Grant OCE-0927285 to G. Cutter).

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August 22, 2023
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