title: An Interface for the Direct Coupling of Small Liquid Samples to AMS.
abstract: We describe the moving wire interface attached to the 1-MV AMS system at LLNL's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for the analysis of nonvolatile liquid samples as either discrete drops or from the direct output of biochemical separatory instrumentation, such as high-performance liquid chromatography. Discrete samples containing at least a few 10s of nanograms of carbon and as little as 50 zmol14C can be measured with a 3-5% precision in a few minutes. The dynamic range of our system spans approximately 3 orders in magnitude. Sample to sample memory is minimized by the use of fresh targets for each discrete sample or by minimizing the amount of carbon present in a peak generated by an HPLC containing a significant amount of14C. Liquid Sample AMS provides a new technology to expand our biomedical AMS program by enabling the capability to measure low-level biochemicals in extremely small samples that would otherwise be inaccessible.
authors.affiliation: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore, CA 94551.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Ognibene
authors.affiliation: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore, CA 94551.
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore, CA 94551.
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Daley
authors.affiliation: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore, CA 94551.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bench
authors.affiliation: Biology and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore, CA 94551.
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Turteltaub
keywords: 14C; CO2; HPLC interfaces; accelerator mass spectrometry