Elemental analysis

Combustional elemental analysis is a fast and efficient way of analysing the “organic” elements like CHNS. The sample usually comes in the form of powder and is wrapped in a small tin foil before loaded into the elemental analyzer. The tin foil is then dropped into a combustion tube where it is fully combusted in the presence of oxygen. In a subsequent step the gases thereby produced are reduced and excess oxygen is removed so that only simple gases - CO₂, H₂O, N₂ and SO₂ – remain. These gases are then collected and analyzed and the result for each element (CHNS) is presented as weight percent of the total sample mass. The elemental analyzer at CMAL is a vario MICRO cube from Elementar. The MICRO cube analyzes the CHNS content (weight percent) of organic compounds in one single run. All other elements, if any, will be given as a residual mass. Typical sample amounts are 1-10 mg and the analytical range extends down to around 0.001 mg for CHNS. Samples are preferably supplied as a finely ground powder with enough mass to allow for at least two runs.