Hydrogen isotope analysis of natural abundance and deuterium-enriched waters by reduction over chromium on-line to a dynamic dual inlet isotope-ratiomass 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 measureme nt 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 f or the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (V-SMOW) to Standard Light Antarcti c 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. Mem ory effects do exist, but are small for natural abundance samples and can b e minimised by careful planning of the analytical load. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.