Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:14:21.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Classical Acid-Alkali-Acid Treatment Responsible for Contamination? An Alternative Proposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Christine Hatté ,
Jean Morvan ,
Claude Noury  and
Martine Paterne
Christine Hatté
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR1572 CEA/CNRS, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France. E-mail: hatte@lsce.cnrs-gif.fr.
Jean Morvan
Affiliation:
École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes, Avenue du Général Leclerc, F-35700 Rennes, France
Claude Noury
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR1572 CEA/CNRS, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France. E-mail: hatte@lsce.cnrs-gif.fr.
Martine Paterne
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR1572 CEA/CNRS, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France. E-mail: hatte@lsce.cnrs-gif.fr.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

It is well known that, during the widely used AAA pretreatment (de Vries and Barendsen 1954), alkali treatment is responsible for the incorporation of modern carbon due to the precipitation of atmospheric CO2 as carbonate. Until now, the last step of the experiment, consisting in acid treatment (most of the time with hydrochloric acid) was considered to be sufficient to eliminate all of lab contamination. But wood, peat and sediment present a complex molecular structure. During radiocarbon chemical treatments, functional groups still present in the molecules are likely to form ionic bonds with “modern” carbonates. These new chemical bonds resist a “classical” acid treatment and are responsible for rejuvenation. This short paper presents preliminary results for two common 14C cases: rejuvenation of a 0.4 pMC wood and of an Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 (OIS3) paleosol. For both cases, contamination due to incorporation of modern carbon during chemical treatment is evaluated and an alternative protocol is proposed.

Type
I. Becoming Better
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 2A: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 3) , 2001 , pp. 177 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Bird, M, Ayliffe, L, Fifield, L, Turney, C, Cresswell, R, Barrows, T, David, B. 1999. Radiocarbon dating of “old” charcoal using a wet oxidation, stepped-combustion procedure. Radiocarbon 41(2): 127–40.Google Scholar
Enkvist, T, Kremer, KE, Lehtonen, P, Mölsä, U. 1958. Attempts to prepare anion exchangers from lignin. Svensk Papperstidn 61:811–14.Google Scholar
Hatté, C, Pessenda, L CR, Lang, A, Paterne, M. 2001. Development of accurate and reliable 14C chronologies for loess deposits. Application to the loess sequence of Nussloch (Rhine Valley, Germany). Radiocarbon. This issue.Google Scholar
Head, MJ, Zhou, W, Zhou, M. 1989. Evaluation of 14C ages of organic fractions of paleosols from loess-paleosol sequences near Xian, China. Radiocarbon 31(3): 680–96.Google Scholar
Head, MJ, Jacobsen, G, Tuniz, C. 1996. Assessement of the AAA pretreatment technique for charcoal and other organic materials used for 14C AMS studies. Radiocarbon 38(1):46.Google Scholar
Hoper, ST, McCormac, FG, Hogg, AG, Higham, TFG, Head, MJ. 1998. Evaluation of wood pretreatment on Oak and Cedar. Radiocarbon 40(1):45–50.Google Scholar
Leavitt, SW, Danzer, SR. 1993. Method for batch processing small wood samples to holocellulose for stable carbon isotope analysis. Analytical Chemistry 65:87–9.Google Scholar
Pascal, P. 1958. Noveau traité de chimie minérale. Masson Edition XVIII. p 162–3.Google Scholar
Saukhanyan, TA, Belopol'skii, AP. 1954. Kinetics of absorption of carbon dioxide in aqueous ammonia. Zhur. Priklad. Khim. 27:712–21.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. and Zheng, S. 1996. Comparison of fractionation methods for soil organic matter 14C analysis. Radiocarbon 38(2): 219–29.Google Scholar
Van Klinken, J, Hedges, JI. 1998. Chemistry strategies for organic 14C samples. Radiocarbon 40(1):51–6.Google Scholar
de Vries, H, Barendsen, GW. 1954. Measurements of age by the carbon-14 technique. Nature 174:1138–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaitseva, GI. 1995. Chemical composition and sample preparation of archaeological wood for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 37(2):311–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, W, An, Z, Head, MJ. 1994. Stratigraphic division of Holocene loess in China. Radiocarbon 36(1):37–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar