Novel simplified absorption-catalytic method of sample preparation for AMS analysis designed at the Laboratory of Radiocarbon Methods of Analysis (LRMA) in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok

Abstract A new absorption-catalytic method of sample preparation for AMS 14 C analysis has been designed. The semi-automatic graphitization equipment consists of catalytic combustion, selective absorption/desorption of CO 2 and graphitization zones. Sample combustion followed by CO 2 separation takes less than 30 min that allows plenty of samples to be processed in a short time. The average CO 2 conversion to graphite turned out to be 75%. Achieved value of background induced by contamination with contemporary carbon is about 1.2 pMC. The proposed method is reproducible according to results for the OX-I and OX-II oxalic acid standards measured from 2015 to 2018 and has been successfully used for dating lake sediments. The results agree with the data of other laboratories. The penetration of model aerosol particles inhaled at low dose by mice has been studied by means of the designed method.