Carbonate / Hydroxylapatite Analysis by GasBench-IRMS

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Sample types
SIRFER lab provides δ13C and δ18O analysis of powdered carbonates and biogenic carbonates using a Thermo Finnigan GasBench II connected to a Thermo Finnigan MAT 253 via Conflo IV.

Sample Preparation
Pure carbonate samples can be ground using a ball mill or pulverizer and the fine powder can be send to us for analysis. SIRFER will not accept any wet carbonate samples; samples need to be dried properly before pulverized. For enamel samples the samples must be pre-treated following the protocol described by Cerling and Harris (1999). For pure carbonate sample 0.050 to 0.150 mg powder sample is required for analysis and  for biogenic carbonate or bioapatite samples 0.250  to 0.500 mg powder sample is required.

Submission of pre-weighed samples: SIRFER will accept pre-weigh samples in Labco exetainers only. Please contact SIRFER manager (sirfer@utah.edu) for instruction how to ship pre-weighed samples to SIRFER.

Samples should be shipped to SIRFER as described here. A request for analysis and sample ID list should be emailed to us at the time of shipping.

Instrumentation
Thermo Finnigan MAT 253
Thermo Finnigan GasBench II
Thermo Finnigan Conflo IV
​GC-TC PAL autosampler