In 2015, the CAIS pursued international recognition to become the first University Research Center accredited under the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) formed this specialized system for worldwide standardization, to be used by testing centers in developing their management system for quality administration and technical operations. It may confirm or recognize the competence of the testing laboratory.
CAIS was officially been reaccredited under the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard for stable isotope and radiocarbon testing in March 2020 (PJLA no. 87144) and is now the largest stable isotope laboratory in the world.
The primary instrumentation used for determination of radiocarbon (14C) content is the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). The CAIS has two such instruments; a NEC 500KV tandem Pelletron accelerator and a NEC 250KV single stage accelerator. Both capable of achieving precisions of 0.35% and detection of 14C content on 20 micrograms of carbon. Most Biobase product testing will provide more than enough sample for optimized testing. Nearly 10,000 samples are processed and analyzed annually in the CAIS accelerator facility. In concert with the AMS instrumentation, direct measurement of the stable isotopes of carbon, and the preferred method for their determination, is accomplished using Thermo Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometers. The Center has 22 IRMS with 6 available for Biobase testing purposes.
The ASTM D6866 method B, radiocarbon (14C) determination with stable isotope correction, is composed of sample pretreatment, when necessary, such as acid decomposition of included carbonates. The ASTM D6866 method determines organic renewable carbon and excludes inorganic carbon. Samples are combusted or oxidized into carbon dioxide and purified before analysis in an IRMS.