(36)Cl/Cl Accelerator-Mass-Spectrometry Standards: Verification of Their Serial-Dilution-Solution Preparations by Radioactivity Measurements

A consortium of accclerator-mass-spectrometry (AMS) laboratories recently prepared a series of (36)Cl/Cl isotopic ratio AMS standards by an eight-step serial gravimetric dilution scheme. Of the resulting nine solutions, only the latter six could be assayed by AMS to confirm the gravimetric dilution factors. This paper provides the results of relative radioactivity measurements on the first four solutions to verify the first three dilution factors. The fourth solution was the only dilution capable of being directly measured by both AMS and radionuclidic metrology of (36)Cl, and therefore its assay by radioactivity counting was deemed of considerable importance. Assays were performed by 4πβ(−) liquid scintillation (LS) counting of gravimetric aliquots of the solutions, with confirmatory measurements by 2πβ(−) gas-flow proportional counting of gravimetrically-prepared solid sources. The radioactivity measurements on the fourth solution were complex and difficult because of the conflicting combination of a low activity concentration (0.036 Bq · g(−1)) and high salt content (146 mg NaCl per g of solution). These conditions necessitated independent studies of the (36)Cl LS efficiency as a function of NaCl loading in the LS cocktails and of the feasibility of LS counting of precipitated samples, both of which are also reported here. The results of the radioactivity measurements confirmed the dilution factors for the first three solutions to absolute differences of about 1%, and that for the fourth solution to about 1% to 2%. The overall uncertainties for these verification measurements, at a relative three standard deviation uncertainty interval, were of comparable magnitude, i.e., in the range of ±1% to ±2% for the first three solutions and roughly ±3% for the fourth solution.