T02_P18

Radiocarbon dating of fossil wood - verification of the effectiveness of various preparation methods

Michczyńska D¹, Jędrzejowski M¹, Kłusek M¹, Michczyński A¹,  Pawełczyk F¹, Piotrowska N¹, Wyss K², Hajdas I²

¹Institute of Physics - CSE, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland, ²Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland

A comparison of a few various preparation methods was carried out on sub-samples of fossil wood from Szczerców near Bełchatów (Central Poland). The tests were performed for both large and small samples - for LSC and AMS dating, respectively, and all preparation methods were performed two ways: with and without solvent washes in the Soxhlet apparatus. We compared the usefulness and effectiveness of individual methods based on the results of FTIR analysis and ¹⁴C measurements. Our aim was also to check whether the long, multi-stage preparation of large samples, with ¹⁴C concentration value close to the range of radiocarbon method, leads to significant absorption of CO₂. The conducted research and multi-criteria analysis, considering: cost, efficiency, repeatability and work- and time consumption, allowed to select the most effective method of fossil wood preparation.