IAEA-C-3 cellulose was prepared by W.G. Mook and J. van der Plicht of the Centre for Isotope Research CIO, University of Groningen, Netherlands. The starting material was produced in 1989 from one season’s harvest of ca. 40 year old trees from Sweden, imported to Netherlands. The trees were chopped and bleached to cellulose at a paper factory in Bergum, Netherlands, and supplied to CIO in sheets. The bulk material of about 1 m3 is kept at CIO, where part of it was cut into 50 gram pieces, sealed in plastic and shipped to IAEA. The recommended value for 14C activity of this reference material is the result of the statistical evaluation of an interlaboratory comparison [1, 2]. For carbon stable isotope delta values, please refer to Rozanski et al., 1992 [2]. Further details can be found on the Reference Sheet.
Recommended value for C-14 activity
(a) The uncertainty is expressed as a combined standard uncertainty (coverage factor k = 1)
Reference date for decay correction: 01 January 1991
The 14C activity value is expressed in pMC (“percent Modern Carbon”) as reported in the literature [1]
References:
ROZANSKI, K., Consultants' group meeting on 14C reference materials for radiocarbon laboratories. February 18-20, 1991, Vienna, Austria. Internal Report, IAEA, Vienna (1991).
ROZANSKI, K., STICHLER, W., GONFIANTINI, R., SCOTT, E. M., BEUKENS, R. P., KROMER, B., VAN DER PLICHT, J., The IAEA 14C Intercomparison exercise 1990, Radiocarbon, 34 3 (1992) 506-519.
