Triple-isotope calibration of in-house water standards supplemented by determination of 17O content of USGS49-50 reference materials using cavity ring-down laser spectrometry

Isotopes Environ Health Stud. 2021 Jun;57(3):254-261. doi: 10.1080/10256016.2021.1875222. Epub 2021 Jan 29.

Abstract

The procedure of calibrating in-house water standards suitable for routine analyses of triple-isotope composition of water samples using Picarro L2140-i CRDS analyser is presented and discussed. Such standards are indispensable for achieving and maintaining high quality of isotope analyses of water in terms of their precision and accuracy. A set of seven different water standards consisting of three in-house standards and four secondary standards commercially available was calibrated against VSMOW2/SLAP2 primary reference materials. The calibrated standards cover a wide range of isotopic composition, with δ values ranging from close to zero to the values comparable with SLAP2. The apparent consistency of the calibrated values of δ2H, δ18O and d-excess with corresponding certified values for commercially available USGS47-50 standards and the consistency of the calibrated values of δ17O and Δ17O with its literature values for USGS47-48 standards confirm the high quality of the performed calibration. Moreover, the calibration exercise allowed to obtain δ17O and Δ17O values for USGS49 and USGS50 standards, not reported so far.

Keywords: Calibration; hydrogen-2; oxygen-17; oxygen-17 excess; oxygen-18; reference standards.

MeSH terms

  • Calibration
  • Deuterium / analysis
  • Lasers
  • Oxygen Isotopes / analysis*
  • Spectrum Analysis / instrumentation
  • Spectrum Analysis / methods
  • Spectrum Analysis / standards*
  • Water / analysis*

Substances

  • Oxygen Isotopes
  • Oxygen-17
  • Oxygen-18
  • Water
  • Deuterium