物理、化学和生物作用引起的热力学和动力学同位素分馏均为与质量有关的分馏。非质量同位素分馏效应是由一些特殊的气相光化学反应引起的,它可以揭示一些元素浓度,甚至单个同位素比值无法揭示的特殊的作用过程。笔者首次在山东新泰地区新太古代层状硫化物中观测到了明显的硫同位素非质量分馏效应。δ^33S、δ^34S呈线性排列,且与硫同位素质量分馏线平行,^33S小于0。
Thermodynamics and kinetic fractionation resulting from physical, chemical and biological processes are both mass-dependent isotope fractionations. The mass-independent isotope fractionation effects are probably derived from a few special gas-phase photochemical reactions. The mass-independent isotope effects can reveal processes that are unobservable by other techniques including single isotope ratio measurements. An obvious mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation was first observed in Archean stratiform sulfides from Xintai area, Shandong Province. In the δ^33S-δ^34δ plot, all data points are distributed along a lineal line parallel to EMDL (the mass dependent fractionation line), with δ^338 lower than 0.