Construction and development of a radiocarbon-dating laboratory

The major work involved is the development of a practical and reliable radiocarbon dating laboratory at Ball State University. The method involved in determining the age of an organic sample, such as wood, peat, bone, or shell, is a carbon to benzene conversion procedure, followed by a liquid scintillation counting technique. The procedure involves producing; lithium carbide at 9000 C from our carbon sample, and then adding distilled water at room temperature to generate acetylene gas. Using a vanadium pentoxide on alumina catalyst, the acetylene is trimerized to benzene. The benzene is used in the liquid scintillation counter to determine the radiocarbon content. The age of a sample is then calculated from the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12, as found through the counting technique.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306Thesis (M.S.)--Ball State University, 1975