On the Possibility of Using Cotton Cellulose as a Secondary Radiocarbon Standard for Dating Geological Samples
The possibility of using cotton wool as a secondary internal laboratory standard for radiocarbon studies is discussed. Stock medical sterile cotton wool of the 2013 harvest from one shipment was used as a material to prepare the standard. The new standard suitability was tested in two stages: 1) independent calculation of the standard activity in different radiocarbon laboratories; 2) cross dating of the sample set in the NEISRI FEB RAS Radiocarbon Laboratory (using the new standard) and the SPbSU Radiocarbon Laboratory (using the GI benzene standard). The results show the average value for the NEISRI standard activity, calculated by four radiocarbon laboratories, to make 102.85% pMC (the discrepancy does not exceed one standard error), while the cross dating demonstrates satisfactory result conformity and lack of systematic differences.