<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The radiocarbon laboratory at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission is undertaking environmental studies, in order to determine the anthropogenic impact of technologies on the ecosystem through the determination of radiocarbon content in tree leaves and plants. Thus, it was important to validate the method used to demonstrate that the applied procedure gives reliable results. Method validation is universally applied in analytical laboratories as an essential part of quality assurance system and as a basic technical requirement of the ISO 17025 standard. The conventional method used for determination of Fraction Modern (F14C) is a standard method issued by the American Society for Testing and Materials in 2011 with a code ASTM-D 6866-11 Method C. According to Eurachem guide, internal validation was expressed in terms of accuracy that was evaluated by trueness and precision. Trueness was expressed in terms of relative bias, while for precision ten consecutive replicates were carried out to under repeatability conditions and five duplicates were analyzed under reproducibility conditions. The limit of detection and the minimum detectable activity (MDA) were calculated. Uncertainty sources were defined and their relative standard uncertainties were calculated in order to determine the combined standard uncertainty. Five reference samples of different matrices were analyzed; calculated z score values were acceptable as being between –2 and +2. The calculation and results are presented in this work.</abstract>

The radiocarbon laboratory at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission is undertaking environmental studies, in order to determine the anthropogenic impact of technologies on the ecosystem through the determination of radiocarbon content in tree leaves and plants. Thus, it was important to validate the method used to demonstrate that the applied procedure gives reliable results. Method validation is universally applied in analytical laboratories as an essential part of quality assurance system and as a basic technical requirement of the ISO 17025 standard. The conventional method used for determination of Fraction Modern (F14C) is a standard method issued by the American Society for Testing and Materials in 2011 with a code ASTM-D 6866-11 Method C. According to Eurachem guide, internal validation was expressed in terms of accuracy that was evaluated by trueness and precision. Trueness was expressed in terms of relative bias, while for precision ten consecutive replicates were carried out to under repeatability conditions and five duplicates were analyzed under reproducibility conditions. The limit of detection and the minimum detectable activity (MDA) were calculated. Uncertainty sources were defined and their relative standard uncertainties were calculated in order to determine the combined standard uncertainty. Five reference samples of different matrices were analyzed; calculated z score values were acceptable as being between –2 and +2. The calculation and results are presented in this work.

Method validation for the determination of fraction of modern (F14C) in wood samples using conventional method

Geochronometria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Method validation for the determination of fraction of modern (FC) in wood samples using conventional method

The radiocarbon laboratory at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission is undertaking environmental studies, in order to determine the anthropogenic impact of...

Method validation for the determination of fraction of modern (F¹⁴C) in wood samples using conventional method

Article Category: Regular Articles

Published Online: Feb 21, 2018

Page range: 68 - 73

Received: Mar 16, 2015

Accepted: Sep 29, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0080

Keywords
radiocarbon, method validation, ISO 17025, Eurachem Guide, Fraction Modern

© 2015 R. Baydoun., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Method validation for the determination of fraction of modern (F14C) in wood samples using conventional method

Article Category: Regular Articles

Published Online: Feb 21, 2018

Page range: 68 - 73

Received: Mar 16, 2015

Accepted: Sep 29, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0080

Keywordsradiocarbon, method validation, ISO 17025, Eurachem Guide, Fraction Modern

© 2015 R. Baydoun., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Method validation for the determination of fraction of modern (F¹⁴C) in wood samples using conventional method

Keywords
radiocarbon, method validation, ISO 17025, Eurachem Guide, Fraction Modern