Apatite Reference Materials for SIMS Microanalysis of Isotopes and Trace Elements

Twelve apatite samples have been tested as secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) reference materials. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis shows that the SLAP, NUAN and GR40 apatite gems are internally homogeneous, with most trace element mass fractions having 2 standard deviations (2s) ≤ 2.0%. BR2, BR5, OL2, AFG2 and AFB1, which have U > 63 μg g-1, 206Pb/204Pb > 283, and homogeneous SIMS U-Pb data, have respective isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) ages of 2053.90 ± 0.18 Ma, 2040.32 ± 0.14 Ma, 868.90 ± 0.22 Ma, 478.74 ± 0.20 Ma and 473.33 ± 0.19 Ma. Minor U-Pb heterogeneity exists and accurate SIMS results require correction with the 3D Concordia-constrained common Pb composition. Among the studied samples, AFG2 and BR5 are the most homogeneous U-Pb reference materials. The SIMS sulfur isotopic compositions of eight of the apatites shows they are homogeneous, with 2s for both 103δ34S and 103δ33S