Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access")
The article gives a condensed version of the keynote lecture held at the International Mass Spectrometry Conference 2012 in Kyoto. Starting with some examples for isotope research the key requirements for metrologically valid procedures enabling traceable and comparable isotope data are discussed. Of course multi-collector mass spectrometers are required which offer sufficiently high isotope ratio precision for the intended research work. Following this, corrections for mass fractionation/discrimination, validation of the analytical procedure including chemical sample preparation and complete uncertainty budgets are the most important issues for obtaining a metrologically valid procedure for isotope ratio determination. Only the application of such metrologically valid procedures enables the generation of traceable and comparable isotope data. To realize this suitable isotope and/or δ-reference materials are required, which currently are not sufficiently available for most isotope systems. Boron is given as an example, for which the situation regarding isotope and δ-reference materials is excellent. Boron may therefore serve as prototype for other isotope systems.
Isotope reference materials are needed to calibrate and validate analytical procedures used for the determination of isotope amount ratios, procedurally defined isotope ratios or so-called δ values. In contrast to the huge analytical progress in isotope ratio analytics, the production of isotope reference materials has not kept pace with the increasing needs of isotope analysts. Three representative isotope systems are used to explain the technical and non-technical difficulties and drawbacks, on one hand, and to demonstrate what can be achieved at its best, on the other hand. A clear statement is given that new isotope reference materials are needed to obtain traceable and thus comparable data, which is essential for all kinds of isotope research. The range of available isotope reference materials and δ reference materials should be increased and matrix reference materials certified for isotope compositions or δ values, which do not exist yet, should be provided.
Three new offset Delta11B isotope reference materials for environmental boron isotope studies
(2011)
The isotopic composition of boron is a well established tool in various areas of Science and industry. Boron isotope compositions are typically reported as 5nB values which indicate the isotopic difference of a sample relative to the isotope reference material NIST SRM 951.
A significant drawback of all of the available boron isotope reference materials is that none of them covers a natural boron isotope composition apart from NIST SRM 951. To fill this gap of required 5UB reference materials three new solution boric acid reference materials were produced, which cover 6096o of the natural boron isotope Variation (-20 to 40%oo B) of about 100%o. The new reference materials are certified for their B values and are commercially available through European Reference Materials® (http://wwrv.enn-cmi.org). The newly produced and certified boron isotope reference materials will allow straightforward method Validation and quality control of boron isotope data.