Low-energy biomedical GC-AMS system for 14C and 3H detection

The use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in biomedical research will require the development of cost-effective, laboratory-sized AMS systems that can be used in conjunction with gas and liquid phase separation techniques. This paper describes a prototype GC-AMS system designed for the detection of C-14 and H-3 in organic samples. The entire AMS system including the injector, ion source, tandem accelerator, and high-energy analyzer is approximately 3.5 m wide, 1.5 m high and 1 m deep. Also described are methods for converting gas chromatograph (GC) effluent to gaseous CO2 for C-14-labeled compounds. A gas-fed cesium (Cs) sputter ion source converts the CO2 into C- for injection into the AMS accelerator, allowing on-line analysis of C-14-labeled biological samples with AMS, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.