Robert N. Clayton
Robert N. Clayton
Position: Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
Phone: 773-702-7777
Email: r-clayton at uchicago.edu
Office #: RI 440
Research interests:
Our research centers on the application of stable isotope abundance measurements to geochemical and cosmochemical problems. We found that oxygen isotopes in solid bodies of the solar system (on scales from planets to individual mineral grains) follow a pattern of nearly constant ratios of 18O/17O, and variable amounts of 16O. This pattern is unlike that seen in natural processes on Earth, where fractionation patterns are linearly dependent on mass differences of the isotopes. We attribute this difference to the dominance of photochemical processes in the early solar system. This interpretation led to a prediction that the Sun should have a several percent excess of 16O, relative to the inner solar system. This prediction has been verified by measurement of the isotopic composition of solar wind oxygen collected by NASA’s Genesis spacecraft.
Other recent studies have dealt with the behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere: the use of oxygen isotopes as natural tracers of stratosphere-troposphere transport rates, and the use of isotopes of oxygen and sulfur isotopes as tracers of the chemical evolution of the atmosphere, especially the rise of the atmospheric O2 in Precambrian time. This latter study involves laboratory measurements of isotope effects in the photodissociation of SO2 gas. All of these studies require precise mass spectrometric abundance measurements of all of the stable isotopes of each element.
Publications:
R.N.Clayton and T.K.Mayeda: "Kinetic isotope effects in oxygen in the laboratory dehydration of magnesian minerals", J. Phys. Chem. 113, 2212-2217 (2009).
D.L. Cook, M. Wadhwa, R.N. Clayton, N. Dauphas, P.E. Janney and A.M. Davis: "Mass-dependent fractionation of nickel isotopes in meteoritic metal" Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 42 2067-2077 (2008).
D.W. Mittlefehldt and R.N. Clayton: "Oxygen isotopic composition and chemical correlations in meteorites and the terrestrial planets" Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 68, 399-428 (2008).
R.N. Clayton: "Oxygen isotopes in the early Solar System - a historical perspective", Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 68, 4-14 (2008).
J.G. Barzyk, M.R. Savina, A.M. Davis, R. Gallino, F. Gyngard, S. Amari, E. Zinner, M.J. Pellin, R.S. Lewis and R.N. Clayton: "Constraining the 13C neutron source in AGB stars through isotopic analysis of trace elements in presolar SiC", Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 42, 1103-1119 (2007).
V.B. Polyakov, R.N. Clayton, J. Horita and S.D. Mineev: "Equilibrium iron isotope fractionation factors of minerals: Re-evaluation from the data of nuclear inelastic resonant X-ray scattering and Mössbauer spectroscopy", Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 71, 3833-3846 (2007).
J. Horita and R.N. Clayton: "Comment on the studies of oxygen isotope fractionation factors between calcium carbonates and water at low temperatures by Zhou and Zhang (2003;2005)", Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 71, 3131-3135 (2007).
R.N. Clayton: "Isotopes: from Earth to the Solar System", Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 33, 1-19 (2007).
D.L. Cook, M. Wadhwa, P.E. Janney, R.N. Clayton and A.M. Davis: "High-precision measurements of nickel isotopes in metallic samples via multi-collector ICPMS", Anal. Chem. 78, 8477-8484 (2006).
J.G. Barzyk, M.R. Savina, A.M. Davis, R. Gallino, M.J. Pellin, R.S. Lewis, S. Amari and R.N. Clayton: "Multi-element isotopic analysis of single presolar SiC grains", New Astron. Rev. 50, 587-590 (2006).
