RELIABILITY OF MASS SPECTROMETRIC DETERMINATIONS OF BORON ISOTOPE ABUNDANCE

Technical Report · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1959

OSTI ID:4211829

Haas, Jr, W O; Rourke, F M; Mewherter, J L; McDonald, P H

No statistically significant bias in the determination of boron isotope abundance was observed in 22 mass spectrometric analyses of four carefully prepared standards at nominal B/sup 11/B/sup 10/ ratios of 1 : 1 and 4 : 1. The uncertainty in a single determination (including precision and a possible bias of as much as plus or minus 0.4%) in this range is plus or minus 1.3% of the ratio at the 95% confidence level for carefully handled, clean samples when a comparable amount of data is obtrined. Tbis corresponds to plus or minus 1 relative per cent uncertainty in measuring the B/sup 10/ abundance of natural boron. This uncertainty in measurement of the abundance can be reduced by mixing multiple runs on a sample but is limited by the uncertainty concerning bias. The samples were run as sodium tetraborate in the KAlIL single-stage mass spectrometer best adapted for the purpose. (auth)

• Research Organization: Knolls Atomic Power Lab., Schenectady, N.Y.
• DOE Contract Number: W-31-109-ENG-52
• NSA Number: NSA-14-005162
• OSTI ID: 4211829
• Report Number(s): KAPL-2062
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BORATES
BORON 10
BORON 11
BORON ISOTOPES
CHEMISTRY
MASS SPECTROMETERS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY RATIO
SENSITIVITY
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
STANDARDS
USES