Safe Preparation and Delivery of Graphite Targets for 14 C Analysis

Procedures of Bravho Lab at Bologna University

Bibliographic Data

ID9246057
AuthorsLaura Tassoni (0000-0002-0110-3656), Bernd Kromer (0000-0003-1058-4436), Ronny Friedrich (0000-0001-5199-1957), Lukas Wacker (0000-0002-8215-2678), Maurizio Cattani (0000-0003-2607-3657), Michael Friedrich (0000-0003-1614-0959), Dragana Paleček (0000-0002-6556-390X), Enrico Pelloni, Kehua Peng, Michael Eric Thomas, Sahra Talamo (0000-0002-2406-3132)
Year2024
Volume66
Issue5
Pages1368-1378
Publication date2024-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRadiocarbon (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-8222 • E-ISSN: 1945-5755
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/rdc.2023.43
OpenAlexW4385201161
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

Nowadays, most radiocarbon ( 14 C) laboratories can reliably avoid and remove any possible sample contamination during the pretreatment of organic samples (e.g., bones, charcoal, or trees) thanks to a series of methods commonly used by the radiocarbon community. However, what about the final step, the storage of graphite? Rarely do the laboratories produce their graphite and ship it as pressed targets to accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facilities for measurement. Pressed graphite in aluminum targets are vulnerable to contamination, and during shipment or storage, exogenous carbon can be introduced again. Here we report a test on various archaeological sample materials from different environments and different periods (from the past three millennia to the Middle Paleolithic period). We transformed them into graphite, pressed the graphite into targets and sent them to two different AMS laboratories to be dated. We observe that packing details of the targets, extended shipment and storage time may lead to contamination which can be avoided by appropriate packaging in tight metal cans and sealed in vacuum bags. Close cooperation and coordination between our chemistry laboratory and the AMS facilities, high standards in contamination removal, and efficient measurement planning enabled us to obtain reliable 14 C ages within a short time

Accelerator mass spectrometry · Archaeology · Carbon fibers · Charcoal · Chromatography · Composite material · Contamination · Graphite · Metallurgy · Radiocarbon dating · Radiochemistry · Sample Preparation · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Chemistry · Environmental Science · History · Materials Science · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology