NITROGEN, CARBON AND SULFUR DETERMINATION IN MARINE SEDIMENTS AND SUSPENDED PATICULATE MATTER BY ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS

Carbon, Nitrogen and Sulfur determination in sediments and in particulate matter in water provides useful information to biologists, ecologists and chemists involved in the study of the importance and the role of these elements, their chemical nature and their biological and physico-chemical transformations.

The determination of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur, utilizing a simple and fully automatic system, provides useful information on the characterization of these materials. The Flash 2000 Analyzer, based on the dynamic combustion method, provides rapid and automatic determination as well as advantages in terms of precision and reproducibility over the traditional methods without use of hazardous chemicals.

The Flash’s ability is to run high and low levels without matrix effect with the same system. The differentiation of total organic Carbon (TOC) from total Carbon (TC) can be also performed by sample pre-treatment. For TC the sample is analyzed as it is while for TOC the sample is acidified with hydrochloric acid to eliminate carbonates, and then analyzed.

This paper presents data of sediments and particulate matter in water analysed several times to show repeatability obtained with the system.