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Microgram-Level Radiocarbon Determination of Carbonaceous Particles in Firn and Ice Samples: Pretreatment and OC/EC Separation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Fang Cao ,
Yan-Lin Zhang ,
Sönke Szidat ,
Alexander Zapf ,
Lukas Wacker  and
Margit Schwikowski
Fang Cao
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
Yan-Lin Zhang
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland
Sönke Szidat
Affiliation:
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland
Alexander Zapf
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland
Lukas Wacker
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
Margit Schwikowski*
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland
*
6Corresponding author. Email: margit.schwikowski@psi.ch.
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Abstract

Carbonaceous particles that comprise organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) are of increasing interest in climate research because of their influence on the radiation balance of the Earth. The radiocarbon determination of particulate OC and EC extracted from ice cores provides a powerful tool to reconstruct the long-term natural and anthropogenic emissions of carbonaceous particles. However, this 14C-based source apportionment method has not been applied for the firn section, which is the uppermost part of Alpine glaciers with a typical thickness of up to 50 m. In contrast to glacier ice, firn samples are more easily contaminated through drilling and handling operations. In this study, an alternative decontamination method for firn samples consisting of chiselling off the outer parts instead of rinsing them was developed and verified. The obtained procedural blank of 2.8 ± 0.8 μg C for OC is a factor of 2 higher compared to the rinsing method used for ice, but still relatively low compared to the typical OC concentration in firn samples from Alpine glaciers. The EC blank of 0.3 ± 0.1 μg C is similar for both methods. For separation of OC and EC for subsequent 14C analysis, a thermal-optical method instead of the purely thermal method was applied for the first time to firn and ice samples, resulting in a reduced uncertainty of both the mass and 14C determination. OC and EC concentrations as well as their corresponding fraction of modern for firn and ice samples from Fiescherhorn and Jungfraujoch agree well with published results, validating the new method.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 383 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

†

Deceased.

References

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