Continuous measurements of stable carbon isotopes in CO2 with a near-IR laser absorption spectrometer

A near-IR laser absorption spectrometer using a technique of wavelength modulation spectroscopy is used to measure stable carbon isotope ratios of ambient CO2 (δ13C) via the absorption lines 12CO2 R(17) (2ν1 + ν12 − ν12 + ν3) at 4978.205 cm−1 and 13CO2 P(16) (ν1 + 2ν2 + ν3) at 4978.023 cm−1. The isotope ratios are measured with a reproducibility of 0.02‰ (1σ) in a 130-s integration time over a 12-h period. The humidity effect on δ13C values has been evaluated in laboratory experiments. The δ13C values of CO2 in ambient air were measured continuously over 8 days and agreed well with those from isotope ratio mass spectrometry of canister samples. The spectrometer is thus capable of real-time, in situ measurements of stable carbon isotope ratios of CO2 under ambient conditions.