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Evaluating uncertainty in the calculation of non‐exchangeable hydrogen fractions within organic materials
Author(s) -
Chesson Lesley A.,
Podlesak David W.,
Cerling Thure E.,
Ehleringer James R.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.4000
Subject(s) - chemistry , hydrogen , fraction (chemistry) , keratin , muscle tissue , composition (language) , biological materials , analytical chemistry (journal) , environmental chemistry , chromatography , organic chemistry , biological system , anatomy , medicine , pathology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
We calculated the fraction of exchangeable hydrogen atoms in proteinaceous materials commonly analyzed for stable isotopic composition related to the region‐of‐origin of an animal. These included several types of α ‐ and β ‐keratin, and muscle tissue. We find that the fraction of H atoms in keratin available for exchange at a biologically relevant temperature (25°C) averaged 9% across a range of ground organic materials, but was as high as ∼17% in cut hair; muscle tissue has ∼12% exchangeable H atoms. Under most analysis conditions, the difference in exchangeable fractions due to physical sample processing has a minimal effect on the calculated δ 2 H values of the non‐exchangeable H atoms within a keratin‐containing tissue (<2‰). However, extreme mismatches between sample and reference material types could affect δ 2 H values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.