Rapid isolation of biomarkers for compound specific radiocarbon dating using high-performance liquid chromatography and flow injection analysis-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation mass spectrometry

Repeated semi-preparative normal-phase HPLC was performed to isolate selected biomarkers from sediment extracts for radiocarbon analysis. Flow injection analysis-mass spectrometry was used for rapid analysis of collected fractions to evaluate the separation procedure, taking only 1 min per fraction. In this way 100-1000 mug of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers, sterol fractions and chlorophyll-derived phytol were isolated from typically 100 g of marine sediment, i.e., in sufficient quantities for radiocarbon analysis, without significant carbon isotopic fractionation or contamination. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.