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Vol. 28 No. 2
March-April 2006

The Project Place | Information about new, current, and complete IUPAC projects and related initiatives
See also www.iupac.org/projects

Calibration of Organic and Inorganic Oxygen-Bearing
Isotopic Reference Materials


During the past three decades, the determination of the relative amounts of stable isotopes of the light elements (H, C, N, O, and S) has dramatically increased because of expanded use in hydrology, environmental studies, microbiology, forensic investigations, atmospheric investigations, oceanography, and other fields. In the past 10 years, the determination of the relative amounts of the isotopes of oxygen in organic and inorganic solids has increased because of developments in instrumentation. In the past 5 years, several new oxygen isotopic reference materials have been prepared. However, the values of the relative amounts of oxygen isotopes in these new materials, and in older materials, are not well known. Thus, the problem arises that two isotope laboratories analyzing the same sample may not report the same result within analytical uncertainty, because they do not know what values to accept for internationally distributed oxygen isotopic reference materials.

The purpose of this two-year project is to bring together expert analytical laboratories (Jena, Reston, Leipzig, Canberra, and Zurich) to measure the relative amounts of oxygen isotopes in isotopic reference materials. This highly coordinated analytical effort will include inorganic materials, organic materials, atmospheric oxygen, and two water reference materials.

Strict analytical protocols will be designed and followed by all laboratories. An initial phase of the project will be to assess the oxygen exchangeability of potential materials to eliminate those with exchangeable oxygen. At the conclusion of the analytical effort, task group members will convene for a three-day workshop to determine consensus values and uncertainties. Isotopic reference materials considered for this project include: IAEA-CH-3 cellulose, IAEA-CH-6 sucrose, IAEA-600 caffeine, IAEA-601 & IAEA-602 benzoic acid, USGS40 & USGS41 L-glutamic acids, USGS32 KNO3, IAEA-NO-3 KNO3, USGS34 KNO3, USGS35 NaNO3, NBS-127 BaSO4, IAEA-SO-5 BaSO4, IAEA-SO-6 BaSO4, and methionine.


For more information and comments, contact the task group chairman, Tyler B. Coplen <[email protected]>.

www.iupac.org/projects/2005/2005-022-1-200.html


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