Determination of carbon-14 in biological material by flask combustion and suspension scintillation counting of carbon-14 labelled calcium carbonate

Abstract

Aqueous sodium hydroxide solution is used as the absorbent in an oxygen-flask technique to avoid the risk of an explosion when an organic liquid absorbent is introduced into an oxygen atmosphere. Calcium carbonate is precipitated in the solution in the presence of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, which produces uniform precipitates giving reproducible count-rates.