Precision and reproducibility of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al measurements assessed from a multi-laboratory compilation of duplicate and reference material analyses

Abstract. To quantify the reproducibility and precision of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al analyses, we analysed a suite of liquid and quartz reference materials, together with duplicate preparations of unknown research samples. Comparison among these materials allows us to constrain uncertainties associated with AMS measurement, chemical extraction, and quartz purification, and to assess whether additional variability is introduced at successive stages of the analytical process. Samples were prepared in three chemistry laboratories at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the University of Wollongong (UOW), and Imperial College London, and subsequently analysed by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) using the 6 MV SIRIUS accelerator at ANSTO. All three laboratories showed intra-laboratory variability below the routine 2% analytical uncertainty, while measured values were consistent with the nominal values of the reference materials. These results indicate that both methodological reproducibility and inter-laboratory variability are also within the analytical uncertainty, and provide no evidence for additional uncertainty associated with processing quartz relative to liquid reference materials. The implications for cosmogenic-nuclide research are that: (1) the reproducibility and precision of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al analyses are typically 2–3% when sufficient counting statistics are achieved; (2) at lower isotope concentrations, counting statistics and/or background corrections may limit the achievable measurement uncertainty, although the resulting variability remains consistent with the reported analytical precision; and (3) precision of approximately 1% is achievable for high-concentration liquid reference materials, as demonstrated by Be-KN-5-4 and Al-KN-4-3, but has not yet been demonstrated for quartz samples.