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- Authenticity (1)
- Boron isotope variations (1)
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Development and validation of a method to determine the boron isotopic composition of crop plants
(2011)
We present a comprehensive chemical and mass spectrometric method to determine boron isotopic compositions of plant tissue. The method including dry ashing, a three-step ion chromatographic boron–matrix separation, and 11B/10B isotope ratio determinations using the Cs2BO2+ graphite technique has been validated using certified reference and quality control materials. The developed method is capable to determine δ11B values in plant tissue down to boron concentrations of 1 mg/kg with an expanded uncertainty of ≤1.7‰ (k = 2). The determined δ11B values reveal an enormous isotopic range of boron in plant tissues covering three-quarters of the natural terrestrial occurring variation in the boron isotopic composition. As the local environment and anthropogenic activity mainly control the boron intake of plants, the boron isotopic composition of plants can be used for food provenance studies.
Boron isotope studies on technical materials and geological and environmental samples are one hot topic in nowadays isotope research. Provenance studies of artefacts, food and other products might become another one, as several recent studies demonstrate. Typically boron isotope determinations have been carried out by TIMS. To open up this research field to a broader scientific community we developed two analytical procedures for boron isotope determinations based on single collector SF-ICPMS combined with a sample preparation procedure consisting of dry-ashing and a three step ion chromatographic boron-matrix separation. The developed procedures consist of one low resolution (LR) and one medium resolution (MR) procedure. The repeatability for the δ11B determination in three independently measured aliquots lies between 0.2 and 0.8‰ for the LR procedure and between 0.3 and 1.5‰ for the MR procedure. The expanded uncertainties with a coverage factor of k=2 range between 1.4 and 1.6‰ for the LR procedure and between 2.9 and 3.2‰ for the MR procedure. The accuracy, expressed as average deviation from the reference values, is 0.43‰ for the LR procedure and 0.33‰ for the MR procedure. To test the practicability of the procedures the matrix tolerance has been investigated as well and was found to be up to 2 mg kg-1 of alkaline and alkaline earth elements in the final measurement solution containing 100 µg kg-1 boron. Thus a highly efficient matrix separation for SF-ICPMS boron isotope determinations is required, similar to TIMS.