Stable Nitrogen and Oxygen Isotope Fractionation During Precipitation of Nitrate Salt from Saturated Solutions

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : RCM
Hannah WelshRonald Amundson

Abstract

Nitrate is an oxyanion similar to CO3- , and thus should undergo stable N and O isotope fractionation during dissolution or precipitation. This process should dominate abiotic soil nitrate processes in hyperarid regions of Earth, and possibly Mars. The N and O isotope fractionations during the precipitation of nitrate salt from saturated solutions at ~20 °C were determined by two methods: rapid precipitation by antisolvent crystallization, and slow uninhibited precipitation in a desiccator. In the antisolvent crystallization procedure, increasing volumes of acetone were added to samples of saturated sodium and strontium nitrate solutions to instantaneously precipitate nitrate salt. In the slow procedure (requiring weeks), slow evaporative water loss drove the process. There was little difference between the two procedures. Using a Rayleigh model, the calculated N fractionation (15 εproduct-residual ) ranged from 1.69 to 2.77‰, while for O, 18 εproduct-residual values were between 1.27 and 4.61‰. The N isotope fractionation between NO3- and the metal solid is similar to that between C in dissolved CO3-2 and carbonates. We found that O vs N isotope plots of soil nitrate in a cold/dry Antarctic chronosequence1 had slopes similar t...Continue Reading

References

Mar 7, 2013·The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B·Jan ThøgersenJan Helbing
Apr 2, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jennifer C SternUNKNOWN MSL Science Team

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