Separation of rare earth elements and strontium from chondritic meteorites by miniaturized extraction chromatography for elemental and isotopic analyses

Abstract

A new separation scheme for rare earth elements (REE) and strontium, and its application to REE determination of chondrites and terrestrial rocks along with isotopic analysis of strontium in chondritic meteorites are presented. The miniaturized extraction chromatography scheme using RE and Sr Resins provide simple and effective methods for the isolation of REE and strontium from chondritic meteorites. Chemical yields of up to 90% of the desired elements and low procedural blanks enable us to use the resins for small-size chondritic meteorite samples, weighing one to five milligrams. The techniques presented here are fully applicable to Rb-Sr isotopic systematics and to REE geochemistry and cosmochemistry. A separation procedure of lead from total rock basalt samples using Sr Resin is also briefly described.