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Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Characterization, Quantification and Compound-specific Isotopic Analysis of Pyrogenic Carbon Using Benzene Polycarboxylic Acids (BPCA)
Published on: May 16, 2016
Minimization of sample requirement for delta18O in benzoic acid
William M Hagopian1, A Hope Jahren
1Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Abstract:
The measurement of the oxygen stable isotope content in organic compounds has applications in many fields, ranging from paleoclimate reconstruction to forensics. Conventional High-Temperature Conversion (HTC) techniques require >20 microg of O for a single delta(18)O measurement. Here we describe a system that converts the CO produced by HTC into CO(2) via reduction within a Ni-furnace. This CO(2) is then concentrated cryogenically, and 'focused' into the isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) source using a low-flow He carrier gas (6-8 mL/min). We report analyses of benzoic acid (C(7)H(6)O(2)) reference materials that yielded precise delta(18)O measurement down to 1.3 microg of O, suggesting that our system could be used to decrease sample requirement for delta(18)O by more than an order of magnitude.
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