Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:26:34.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Low-Energy Isobar Separator for Anions: Progress Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

W E Kieser ,
John Eliades ,
A E Litherland ,
Xiaolei Zhao ,
Lisa Cousins  and
S J Ye
W E Kieser*
Affiliation:
IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada
John Eliades
Affiliation:
IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada
A E Litherland
Affiliation:
IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada
Xiaolei Zhao
Affiliation:
IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada
Lisa Cousins
Affiliation:
Ionics Mass Spectrometry Group, 32 Nixon Road, Unit 1, Bolton, Ontario L7E 1W2, Canada
S J Ye
Affiliation:
Ionics Mass Spectrometry Group, 32 Nixon Road, Unit 1, Bolton, Ontario L7E 1W2, Canada
*
Corresponding author. Email: liam.kieser@utoronto.ca
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.

The suppression of interferences from atomic and molecular isobars is a key requirement for the extension of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to the analysis of new cosmogenic isotopes and for increasing the range of applications for small AMS systems. In earlier work, it was shown that unwanted isobars can be eliminated by anion-gas reactions (Litherland et al. 2007). Recently, a prototype system in which such reactions could be applied to ions from an AMS ion source, the Isobar Separator for Anions (ISA), was described (Eliades et al. 2009). This system decelerates the beam of rare anions from keV to eV energies, guides them through a single radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) gas cell, and re-accelerates them for further analysis in a 2.5MV AMS system. Tests of this system with Cl and S anions and NO2 gas showed a suppression of S with respect to Cl of over 6 orders of magnitude, with a transmission of ∼30% for the Cl beam. In this work, results of the analysis of a range of standard reference materials are reported; these show the linearity of the system for measuring the 36Cl/35Cl ratio over a span of 2 orders of magnitude. Further tests, using the AMS system as a diagnostic tool, have provided clues about the loss of Cl at higher cell pressure and the nature of the residual low level of S transmission. These lead to the assessment of various gases for cooling the Cl– beam. Suppression measurements for 41K in the analysis of 41Ca, using NO2 as a reaction gas, are also discussed. These preliminary measurements have provided data for the development of a more advanced system with separate cooling and reaction cells.

Type
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 236 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Doupé, JP. 2004. Assessment of strategies for measuring Cl-36 in natural samples [PhD dissertation]. University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Dunkin, DB, Fehsenfeld, FC, Ferguson, EE. 1972. Thermal energy rate constants for the reactions NO2 – + Cl2 ŕ Cl– 2 + NO2, Cl– 2 + NO2 ŕ Cl– + NO2Cl, SH– + NO2 ŕ NO– 2 + SH, SH– + Cl2 ŕ Cl– 2 + SH, and S– + NO2 ŕ NO– 2 + S. Chemical Physics Letters 15(2):257–9.Google Scholar
Eliades, J, Litherland, AE, Kieser, WE, Cousins, L, Yeb, SJ, Zhao, X-L. 2009. Cl/S isobar separation using an online reaction cell for 36Cl measurements at low energies. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B: doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.044 Google Scholar
Elmore, D, Bhattacharyya, MH, Sacco-Gibson, N, Peterson, DP. 1990. Calcium-41 as a long-term biological tracer for bone resorption. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 52(3–4):531–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, SPHT, Serfass, RE, King, JC, Southon, JR, Fang, Y, Woodhouse, LR, Bench, GS, McAninch, JE. 1995. Biological sample preparation and 41Ca AMS measurement at LLNL. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 99(1–4):557–61.Google Scholar
Galindo-Uribarri, A, Beene, JR, Danchev, M, Doupé, J, Fuentes, IB, Gomez del Campo, J, Hausladen, PA, Juras, RC, Liang, JF, Litherland, AE, Liu, Y, Meigs, MJ, Mills, GD, Mueller, PE, Padilla-Rodal, E, Pavan, J, Sinclair, JW, Stracener, DW. 2007. Pushing the limits of accelerator mass spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):123–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutsev, GL. 1993. A theoretical investigation of the electronic and geometric structure of silicon fluorides SiFn and their anions SiFn –, n = 1–6. Russian Chemical Bulletin 42(1):36–45.Google Scholar
Kilius, LR, Rucklidge, JC, Wilson, GC, Lee, HW, Chang, KH, Litherland, AE, Kieser, WE, Beukens, RP, Gorton, MP. 1984. Charge ratio mass spectrometry of heavy elements. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 5(2):185–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilius, LR, Rucklidge, JC, Litherland, AE. 1987. Accelerator mass spectrometry of 129I at IsoTrace. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 29(1–2):72–6.Google Scholar
Kilius, LR, Baba, N, Garwan, MA, Litherland, AE, Nadeau, M-J, Rucklidge, JC, Wilson, GC, Zhao, X-L. 1990. AMS of heavy ions with small accelerators. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 52(3–4):357–65.Google Scholar
Litherland, AE, Tomski, I, Zhao, XL, Cousins, L, Doupé, JP, Javahery, G, Kieser, WE. 2007. Isobar separation at very low energy for AMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):230–5.Google Scholar
Paul, M. 1990. Separation of isobars with a gas-filled magnet. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 52(3–4):315–21.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, GM, Yiou, F, Bourlès, D, Brown, E, Deboffle, D, Jouhanneau, P, Lestringuez, J, Zhou, ZQ. 1994. The AIMS facility at Gif-sur-Yvette: progress, perturbations and projects. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 92(1–4):43–6Google Scholar
Tanner, SD, Baranov, VI, Bandura, DM. 2002. Reaction cells and collision cells for ICP-MS: a tutorial review. Spectrochimica Acta B 57(9):1361–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, X-L, Eliades, J, Liu, Q, Kieser, WE, Litherland, AE, Ye, S, Cousins, L. 2009. Studies of anions from sputtering III: the 41K background in 41CaF3 – measurement by AMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B: doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.038 Google Scholar