Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 10 (2009): Q05008, doi:10.1029/2009GC002429.
Description:
A method is presented for precisely measuring all five noble gases and their isotopic ratios in water samples using multiple programmed multistage cryogenic traps in conjunction with quadrupole mass spectrometry and magnetic sector mass spectrometry. Multiple automated cryogenic traps, including a two-stage cryotrap used for removal of water vapor, an activated charcoal cryotrap used for helium separation, and a stainless steel cryotrap used for neon, argon, krypton, and xenon separation, allow reproducible gas purification and separation. The precision of this method for gas standards is ±0.10% for He, ±0.14% for Ne, ±0.10% for Ar, ±0.14% for Kr, and ±0.17% for Xe. The precision of the isotopic ratios of the noble gases in gas standards are ±1.9‰ for 20Ne/22Ne, ±2.0‰ for 84Kr/86Kr, ±2.5‰ for 84Kr/82Kr, ±0.9‰ for 132Xe/129Xe, and ±1.3‰ for 132Xe/136Xe. The precision of this method for water samples, determined by measurement of duplicate pairs, is ±1% for He, ±0.9% for Ne, ±0.3% for Ar, ±0.3% for Kr, and ±0.2% for Xe. An attached magnetic sector mass spectrometer measures 3He/4He with precisions of ±0.1% for air standards and ±0.14% for water samples.
Description:
We are grateful for support by the National Science Foundation
Chemical Oceanography program (OCE-0221247), by the
Department of Defense (graduate fellowship to RHRS), and by
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (postdoctoral fellowship
for B.B.).
Keywords:
Noble gas
;
Oceanography
;
Mass spectrometry
;
Seawater
;
Isotope
;
Cryogenic
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
