Radon Elimination During Benzene Preparation for Radiocarbon Dating by Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9243120 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Darden Hood, Ronald Hatfield, Christopher Patrick, Jerry Stipp, Murry Tamers, Robert Leidl, Barbara Lyons, Henry Polach, Steve Robertson (0000-0002-5683-363X), Weijian Zhou (0000-0001-9641-5734) |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 03 |
| Pages | 254-259 |
| Publication date | 1989-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Radiocarbon (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-8222 • E-ISSN: 1945-5755 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0033822200011760 |
| OpenAlex | W2503216924 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
Radon gas is a serious contaminant in radiocarbon dating by radiometry. The low specific ionizations associated with the α-particle emitting radon and its β-particle emitting daughters overlap within the 14 C counting window. Elimination of radon is therefore imperative for precise 14 C age determinations. This paper deals with the sources and mechanism of incorporation of radon affecting 14 C dating by liquid scintillation (LS) counting, and reviews conventional radon elimination practices in 14 C laboratories. It demonstrates, based on rigorous multichannel and multiparameter α- and β-particle spectral analyses of some 1000 benzene samples, that parent radium is not present and that its daughter radon is quantitatively eliminated during dynamic vacuum recovery of benzene at −78°C. However, the radon-free benzene can be recontaminated by exposure to air containing traces of radon, such as is common in concrete or low-lying laboratories. The use of radon-free air, when exposing the benzene to the atmosphere, and the monitoring of radon counts from the environment and sample benzene in a fixed ‘radon window', are essential prerequisites to the quality control of 14 C age determinations in very low background systems
Accelerator mass spectrometry · Benzene · Chromatography · Liquid scintillation counting · Mass spectrometry · Nuclear physics · Physics · Radiocarbon dating · Radiochemistry · Radium · Radon · Radon gas · Chemistry · Environmental Science · Nuclear Physics and Applications · Radioactive contamination and transfer · Radioactivity and Radon Measurements · Environmental Chemistry · Geology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1995 - 2024 (30) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |