Use of Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers for the Automatic Online Determination of Isotope Ratios of the Stable Isotopes Carbon-13 and Nitrogen-15 Rolf Russow, UFZ Leipzig-Halle, Germany

Quadrupole mass spectrometers are highly sensitive mass spectrometers with a large dynamic measuring range. They come in a compact, robust design and are relatively simple to use and maintain. Moreover, they are also fairly inexpensive. Therefore, when it comes to the online determination of the isotope abundance of light elements from isotopically enriched samples using a continuous flow mode of operation (as demonstrated by the examples for C and N), quadrupole mass spectrometers make a worthwhile alternative to standard magnetic mass spectrometers.