Current sample pretreatment protocols for AMS radiocarbon dating by DIrectAMS (D-AMS)

Full text: Both physical and chemical pretreatment are implemented at DirectAMS to remove exogenous carbon and/or isolate the carbon fraction of interest for radiocarbon dating by AMS. Since the primary offer of a fundamental Acid-Base-Acid pretreatment for organics, DirectAMS has incrementally implemented pretreatment protocols for materials routinely recovered from a variety of contexts. The methods described are the current pretreatment protocols for plant matter, charcoal, wood, alpha-cellulose extraction, shells and other carbonates, fractions of sediment, fraction of bone, keratinous materials, and textiles and other human-worked objects.