Study of the C-14-contamination potential of C-impurities in CuO and Fe

The carbon concentration in CuO and iron was determined by isolating C. The values were in agreement with results reported in other studies. Contaminating carbon from CuO and Fe was transformed to AMS targets and measured for C-14. C-traces in CuO were shown to be the major contribution to the C-14 Sample processing blank. In addition, there is a significant variability in the C-14 content of CuO observed between different production batches. The combined contamination potential of CuO and Fe was found to be 4.47-8.92 mu g recent carbon, whereas the more realistic estimate for AMS-target preparation conditions ranged between 1.63 and 3.24 mu g recent carbon, depending on the C-14 level in CuO.