A decade of AMS at the University of Georgia

In a span of 10 years, the University of Georgia's Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS) has transformed itself from principally a liquid scintillation counting (LSC) laboratory to one conducting thousands of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and stable isotope ratio analysis (SIRA) annually. After receiving the first of the NEC compact AMS units in the United States, the CAIS began to meet the demand for C-14 analysis outside the normal realm of most radiocarbon dating laboratories. With industry's support, isotope research continued on an already developing natural products program to authenticate materials origin and process of formation. The CAIS's AMS allowed for the detection of synthetic materials in milligram quantities rather than gram quantities required by LSC and allowed new compound specific SIRA techniques to be directed toward compound specific C-14 measurement. By 2005 the CAIS was one of only a few laboratories accredited to determine bio-base content in industrial fuels and products by both AMS and LSC following ASTM D6866-10 [1]. Since 2001, when our first sample was analyzed by AMS method, both radiocarbon and natural products sample numbers have increased steadily. The advantages of AMS analysis in overall efficiency, cost savings, accuracy, and precision, are detailed here in a review of analytical precision for radiocarbon and natural products analyzed over 10 years of AMS operation. Comparisons are made between natural products and bio-based materials analyzed by both AMS and LSC. Although high precision is not required to authenticate natural products, for the purpose of product comparison with regard to degree of naturalness accurate and precise C-14 measurement is shown to be achievable by both methods. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.