Comparison of methods to determine triple oxygen isotope composition of N2O. (27th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dyckmans, Jens; Lewicka‐Szczebak, Dominika; Szwec, Lars; Langel, Reinhard; Well, Reinhard
• Is Part Of: Rapid communications in mass spectrometry. Volume 29:Number 21(2015)
• Page Start: 1991
• Page End: 1996
• Publication Date: 2015-09-27
• Subjects: Mass spectrometry -- Periodicals; 543.65
• DOI: 10.1002/rcm.7311
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0951-4198

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="rcm7311-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Rationale</title> <p>The oxygen isotope anomaly, Δ¹⁷O, of N₂O and nitrate is useful to elucidate nitrogen oxide dynamics. A comparison of different methods for Δ¹⁷O measurement was performed.</p> </sec> <sec id="rcm7311-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>For Δ¹⁷O measurements, N₂O was converted into O₂ and N₂ using microwave‐induced plasma in a quartz or corundum tube reactor, respectively, or conversion was carried out in a gold wire oven. In each case, isotope ratios were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry.</p> </sec> <sec id="rcm7311-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>All the tested methods showed acceptable precision (coefficient of variation &lt;2.4 % at 160 nmol N₂O) with high sample size but the sample size dependence was lowest when using microwave‐induced plasma in a corundum tube reactor.</p> </sec> <sec id="rcm7311-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>The use of microwave‐induced plasma in a corundum tube yields best results for Δ¹⁷O measurement on N₂O gas samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.</p> </sec> </abstract>