Determination of isotopic composition of dissolved copper in seawater by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after pre-concentration using an ethylenediaminetriacetic acid chelating resin

•A simple analytical method for determining the Cu isotopic composition in seawater using an ethylenediaminetriacetic acid chelating resin was developed.•The accuracy was evaluated via addition of NIST SRM976 or 65Cu-enriched standard to seawater.•δ65Cu of seawater reference materials (i.e., CASS-5 and NASS-6) and seawater samples from the northwestern Pacific Ocean were firstly determined.

Copper is an essential trace metal that shows a vertical recycled-scavenged profile in the ocean. To help elucidate the biogeochemical cycling of Cu in the present and past oceans, it is important to determine the distribution of Cu isotopes in seawater. However, precise isotopic analysis of Cu has been impaired by the low concentrations of Cu as well as co-existing elements that interfere with measurements by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). The objective of this study is to develop a simple Cu pre-concentration method using Nobias-chelate PA1 resin (Hitachi High Technologies). This extraction followed by anion exchange, allows precise analysis of the Cu isotopic composition in seawater. Using this method, Cu was quantitatively concentrated from seawater and >99.9999% of the alkali and alkaline earth metals were removed. The technique has a low procedural blank of 0.70 ng for Cu for a 2 L sample and the precision of the Cu isotopic analysis was ±0.07‰ (±2SD, n = 6). We applied this method to seawater reference materials (i.e., CASS-5 and NASS-6) and seawater samples obtained from the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The range of dissolved δ65Cu was 0.40–0.68‰.

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