Chemical isolation of quartz for measurement of in-situ -produced cosmogenic nuclides

An isolation method relying totally on chemical steps was developed to separate large quantities (10–200 g) of clean mono-minerallic quartz samples from a variety of terrestrial rocks and soils for the purpose of measuring 10Be (t12 = 1.5 Myr) and 26Al (t12 = 0.705 Myr) produced by cosmic rays in situ in the quartz phase. The procedure consists of grinding the sample, heating it in HCl, and treating it with a series of leaches using a dilute HF/HNO3 mixture in a heated ultrasonic tank. The purified quartz was also used for the measurements of in-situ -cosmic-ray-produced 21Ne and 14C (t12 = 5730 myr). The method is applicable to any problem requiring purified quartz on a large scale.