The applicability of laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICPMS)
for the determination of the B isotopic composition in Roman glasses was investigated. The δ11B values
thus obtained provide information on the natron flux used during the glass-making process. The glass samples
used for this purpose were previously characterized using pneumatic nebulization (PN) MC-ICP-MS. Unfortunately,
this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive and consumes some 100 mg of sample, which is a
rather high amount for ancient materials. Therefore, the use of the less invasive and faster LA-MC-ICP-MS
approach was explored. In this work, the results for 29 Roman glasses and 4 home-made glasses obtained
using both techniques were compared to assess the suitability of LA-MC-ICP-MS in this context. The results are
in excellent agreement within experimental uncertainty. No difference in overall mass discrimination was observed
between the Roman glasses, NIST SRM 610 reference glass and B6 obsidian. The expanded uncertainty
of the LA-MC-ICP-MS approach was estimated to be b2‰, which is similar to that obtained upon sample
digestion and PN-MC-ICP-MS measurement.