Quantitative separation of molybdenum and rhenium from geological materials for isotopic determination by MC-ICP-MS

Pearce, Christopher; Cohen, Anthony and Parkinson, Ian (2009). Quantitative separation of molybdenum and rhenium from geological materials for isotopic determination by MC-ICP-MS. Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, 33(2) pp. 219–229.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-908X.2009.00012.x

Abstract

We have developed a new chemical procedure for the quantitative separation of molybdenum (Mo) and rhenium (Re) from a wide variety of geological samples. A single pass anion exchange separation provided complete recovery of pure Mo and Re in a form that was ideal for subsequent isotope and abundance determination by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (MC-ICP-MS). An enriched ¹⁰⁰Mo-⁹⁷Mo solution, mixed with the sample before digestion, enabled natural mass-dependant isotopic fractionation of Mo to be determined with an external reproducibility of < 0.12‰ (δ⁹⁸Mo/⁹⁵Mo, 2s). Determination of the concentration of Mo and Re in the same sample was achieved by isotope dilution, with instrumental mass-fractionation of Re being corrected by the simultaneous measurement of the ¹⁹¹Ir/¹⁹³Ir ratio. We have applied the new procedure to a variety of samples, including seawater, basalt and organic-rich mudrock. The procedure is ideally suited to palaeoredox studies requiring the precise determination of the Mo isotope composition and the Re/Mo ratio from the same sample.

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