Open Access14C Research at the Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA), University of Bern
Author(s) -
Sönke Szidat
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chimia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.387
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2673-2424
pISSN - 0009-4293
DOI - 10.2533/chimia.2020.1010
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , accelerator mass spectrometry , environmental science , carbon fibers , environmental chemistry , greenhouse gas , methane , particulates , archaeology , radiochemistry , chemistry , geology , materials science , geography , oceanography , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material
The Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) at the University of Bern measures the radioactive carbon isotope 14C with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in different applications. Besides radiocarbon dating of environmental and archaeological samples, the LARA focuses on source apportionment of air-borne particulate matter (i.e. aerosols) as well as greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This approach allows the identification and quantification of fossil carbon emissions in these air components, which is relevant for measures of air-quality improvement. The LARA furthermore develops instrumental setups for and at the AMS in order to analyze 14C samples in ?g-amounts with low contamination and high throughput, preferably using online-hyphenated systems.