A community-led calibration of the Zr isotope Reference Materials: NIST candidate RM 8299 and SRM 3169

TL;DR

This paper reports the development and calibration of a new zirconium isotope reference material, RM 8299, through a community-led inter-laboratory study, ensuring a standardized, homogeneous, and conflict-free benchmark for future Zr isotope research.

Contribution

It introduces RM 8299 as a new, well-characterized Zr isotope reference material, calibrated via inter-laboratory efforts, and recommends its use for consistent isotope data reporting.

Findings

RM 8299 is isotopically homogeneous and high-purity.

RM 8299 matches the composition of Ocean Island Basalts.

Existing SRM 3169 lots are equivalent to RM 8299.

Abstract

As the field of Zr stable isotopes is rapidly expanding from the study of mass-independent to that of mass-dependent isotope effects, a variety of Zr standards have appeared in the literature. While several of these standards have been proposed as the ideal isotope reference material (iRM) against which all data should be reported, none of them have been shown to meet the compositional and/or conflict-of-interest-free distribution requirements put forth by the community. To remedy this situation, we report on a community-led effort to develop and calibrate a scale defining iRM for Zr isotopes: NIST RM 8299. Developed in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from the widely used SRM 3169 Zr Standard Solution, the candidate RM 8299 was calibrated through an inter-laboratory study involving three laboratories. Our data show that RM 8299 meets all requirements of an ideal iRM. It is an isotopically homogeneous, high-purity reference material, that is free of isotope anomalies, and whose composition is identical to that of a major geological reservoir (Ocean Island Basalts). Furthermore, RM 8299 will be curated and distributed by NIST, a neutral, conflict-of-interest free organization, and was produced in sufficient quantities to last multiple decades. We recommend that all Zr isotope data to be reported against RM 8299. Our results also show that SRM 3169 lots #130920 and #071226 have identical composition to RM 8299. Therefore, using RM 8299 as the scale defining iRM will enable direct comparison of all future data with the vast majority of the existing literature data, both for mass-independent and mass-dependent isotope effects. To facilitate conversion of d94/90Zr values reported against other Zr standards, we provide high-precision conversion factors to the RM 8299 scale obtained using the double-spike method.