Intercomparison of Boron Isotope and Concentration Measurements. Part II: Evaluation of Results

Roberto Gonfiantini (1) , Sonia Tonarini (1) , Manfred Gröning (2) , Alessandra Adorni-Braccesi (1) , Assad Al-Ammar (3) , Marcus Astner (4) , Sebastien Bächler (4) , Ramon Barnes (3) , Randy Bassett (5) , Alain Cocherie (6) , Annette Deyhle (7) , Andrea Dini (1) , Giorgio Ferrara (1) , Jérôme Gaillardet (8) , Judith Grimm (4) , Catherine Guerrot (6) , Urs Krähenbühl (4) , Graham Layne (9) , Damien Lemarchand (8) , Anette Meixner (10) , D. Jack Northington , Maddalena Pennisi (1) , Eva Reitznerová (3) , Ilia Rodushkin (11) , Naoji Sugiura (12) , Regina Surberg (7) , Sabine Tonn (10) , Michael Wiedenbeck (10) , Samuel Wunderli (13) , Yingkai Xiao (14) , Thomas Zack (15)

1 IGG-CNR - CNR Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse [Pisa]
2 IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency [Vienna]
3 UMass Amherst - University of Massachusetts [Amherst]
4 UNIBE - Universität Bern [Bern]
5 Geochemical Technologies Corporation
6 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
7 GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research [Kiel]
8 IPG Paris - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
9 WHOI - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
10 GFZ - GeoForschungsZentrum - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam
11 LUT - Luleå University of Technology
12 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo
13 Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs und Forschungsanstalt - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
14 Key Laboratory of Comprehensive and Highly Efficient Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China
15 MUN - Memorial University of Newfoundland = Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve [St. John's, Canada]

The Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse (IGG), on behalf and with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), prepared eight geological materials (three natural waters and five rocks and minerals), intended for a blind interlaboratory comparison of measurements of boron isotopic composition and concentration. The materials were distributed to twenty seven laboratories - virtually all those performing geochemical boron isotope analyses in the world -which agreed to participate in the intercomparison exercise. Only fifteen laboratories, however, ultimately submitted the isotopic and/or concentration results they obtained on the intercomparison materials. The results demonstrate that interlaboratory reproducibility is not well reflected by the precision values reported by the individual laboratories and this observation holds true for both boron concentration and isotopic composition. The reasons for the discrepancies include fractionations due to the chemical matrix of materials, relative shift of the zero position on the δ11B scale and a lack of well characterized materials for calibrating absolute boron content measurements. The intercomparison materials are now available at the IAEA (solid materials) and IGG (waters) for future distribution.

Domains: Earth Sciences

Roberto Gonfiantini, Sonia Tonarini, Manfred Gröning, Alessandra Adorni-Braccesi, Assad Al-Ammar, et al.. Intercomparison of Boron Isotope and Concentration Measurements. Part II: Evaluation of Results. Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, 2003, 27 (1), pp.41-57. ⟨10.1111/j.1751-908X.2003.tb00711.x⟩. ⟨hal-04083719⟩