Isotope ratio mass spectrometers, IRMS

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) determines small changes of stable carbon isotopes 13C and 12C as well as the stable nitrogen isotope 15N and 14N.

The ratios of the stable carbon isotopes ¹³C and ¹²C, as well as those of the stable nitrogen isotopes ¹⁵N and ¹⁴N, can provide important information about the origin and biological context of a sample, and are highly relevant in fields such as geochemistry, hydrology, palaeoclimatology, and archaeology..

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) determines small changes of these ratios with respect to a standard (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N).

Stable isotope measurements with radiocarbon dating

The Tandem Laboratory has three IRMS instruments and offers δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N measurements as stand-alone analysis or in combination with radiocarbon dating.

Our Horizon IRMS from Nu instruments is equipped with a 20-port manifold and dual inlet for offline measurement of δ¹³C.

δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N for all types of samples can be determined with our two precisION IRMS systems from Elementar. They are operated in continuous flow mode, and each coupled to an AGE 3 graphitisation system from Ionplus and an elemental analyzer (vario MICRO cube) from Elementar.