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 Natural Product testing will provide enough sample for optimized testing. However, the occasional small sample size, 20 micrograms, such as extracted from chromatographic techniques, can be processed and analyzed in these accelerator mass spectrometers.
In concert with the AMS instrumentation, compound specific measurement of the stable isotope ratios of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur (δ13C, δD, δ15N, δ18O and δ34S) are accomplished using Thermo 253 Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometers. The CAIS uses Agilent 6890 Gas Chromatographic/ 5972 Mass Spectrometers for quantitation and structure elucidation and Agilent 7890 GC coupled to a Gerstel preparative fraction collector for compound specific collection. Graphitization is accomplished on one of our four preparative lines for conversion of high purity carbon dioxide to graphite.