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High‐temperature elemental analysis and pyrolysis techniques for stable isotope analysis
Author(s) -
Gehre Matthias,
Strauch Gerhard
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.1076
Subject(s) - chemistry , pyrolysis , elemental analysis , carbon fibers , nitrogen , analytical chemistry (journal) , deuterium , isotope analysis , hydrogen , reproducibility , inorganic chemistry , environmental chemistry , chromatography , organic chemistry , ecology , materials science , physics , quantum mechanics , composite number , composite material , biology
A universal method for pyrolysis and elemental analysis, suitable for the online determination of deuterium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes for organic and inorganic substances, is presented. The samples are pyrolytically decomposed in a high‐temperature pyrolysis (HTP) system, at a temperature exceeding 1400°C, in the presence of reactive carbon. The method is suitable for the analysis of stable isotope ratios from hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The instrumentation and experimental procedure are simple and cost‐effective. The reproducibility of the delta values for D/H is better than 3‰, and for 18 O, 13 C (organic) and 15 N (inorganic) it is ∼0.2‰. The HTP system is suitable for solid and liquid samples and can use an autosampler for the samples. Results are presented for the isotopic composition of international reference materials and selected laboratory reference materials, which demonstrate the precision and accuracy of the method. Possible problems in the measurement of nitrates and their solutions are particularly discussed. The analyses of oxygen isotopes in selected geological samples (carbonates, silicate, biotite) are demonstrated. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.