Radiocarbon dating sample preparation

The reasons will be clearer after Section 16.4, where AMS radiocarbon sample preparation procedures will be described. Now we would simply like to recall that in preparing graphite pellets for the sputtering source, after a physical chemical cleaning, samples to be dated are usually combusted to obtain C02, which is then converted to graphite by a further step. In this process, the main problem with small samples (a few tens of micrograms) is the possible introduction of contamination. 

Sample Preparation for Electrostatic Accelerator Dating of Radiocarbon... 

Rubin, M., Sample Preparation for Electrostatic Accelerator Dating of Radiocarbon, Chapter 5 in this book. 

CEDAD, n.d.. Sample preparation for AMS radiocarbon dating, In Internet site of CEDAD, Date of access November 2011, Available from http //cedad.unisalento.it/en/ clams.php... 

A radiocarbon AMS measurement cannot occur without previous treatment or preparation of the sample to be dated. 

The existence of radiocarbon (14C) was not realized until 1934, when an unknown radionuclide was formed during exposure of nitrogen to neutrons in a cloud chamber (Kurie, 1934). In 1940, Martin Kamen confirmed the existence of 14C when he prepared a measurable quantity of 14C. Over the next few decades more details on the production rate of 14C in the atmosphere and possible applications for dating archeological samples continued (Anderson et al., 1947 Arnold and Libby, 1949 Anderson and Libby, 1951 Kamen, 1963 Ralph, 1971 Libby, 1982). 

Pesce, G.L.A., Ball, R., Quarta, G., Calcagnile, L. (2012). Identification, extraction and preparation of reliable lime samples for the dating of plasters and mortars with the method of "pure lime lumps". Proceeding of the 6 International Symposium on Radiocarbon and Archaeometry, Cyprus, April 2011... 

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