title: Development of an on-line flow injection Sr/matrix separation method for accurate, high-throughput determination of Sr isotope ratios by multiple collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.
abstract: This work introduces a newly developed on-line flow injection (FI) Sr/Rb separation method as an alternative to the common, manual Sr/matrix batch separation procedure, since total analysis time is often limited by sample preparation despite the fast rate of data acquisition possible by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometers (ICPMS). Separation columns containing approximately 100 muL of Sr-specific resin were used for on-line FI Sr/matrix separation with subsequent determination of (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios by multiple collector ICPMS. The occurrence of memory effects exhibited by the Sr-specific resin, a major restriction to the repetitive use of this costly material, could successfully be overcome. The method was fully validated by means of certified reference materials. A set of two biological and six geological Sr- and Rb-bearing samples was successfully characterized for its (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios with precisions of 0.01-0.04% 2 RSD (n = 5-10). Based on our measurements we suggest (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios of 0.713 15 +/- 0.000 16 (2 SD) and 0.709 31 +/- 0.000 06 (2 SD) for the NIST SRM 1400 bone ash and the NIST SRM 1486 bone meal, respectively. Measured (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope ratios for five basalt samples are in excellent agreement with published data with deviations from the published value ranging from 0 to 0.03%. A mica sample with a Rb/Sr ratio of approximately 1 was successfully characterized for its (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotope signature to be 0.718 24 +/- 0.000 29 (2 SD) by the proposed method. Synthetic samples with Rb/Sr ratios of up to 10/1 could successfully be measured without significant interferences on mass 87, which would otherwise bias the accuracy and uncertainty of the obtained data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Division of Analytical Chemistry-VIRIS Laboratory, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, A-1190 Vienna, Austria. patrick.galler@boku.ac.at
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Galler
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Limbeck
authors.forename: Sergei F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Boulyga
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stingeder
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Prohaska