Hydrogen isotope analysis of natural abundance and deuterium-enriched waters by reduction over chromium on-line to a dynamic dual inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometer

This paper describes the application of a simple chromium reduction furnace which can be interfaced with a dual inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometer thus providing the capacity for cheap, fast, accurate and precise measurement of deltaD(V-SMOW) by dynamic mass spectrometry. Measurements are precise to the order of less than or equal to0.5%. Mean 95% confidence intervals for the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (V-SMOW) to Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation (SLAP) range are in the order of 2.5 parts per thousand and the system is linear over the range -428 to 23,000 parts per thousand. Memory effects do exist, but are small for natural abundance samples and can be minimised by careful planning of the analytical load. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.