Investigation of a fusion technique for the determination of total sulfur in geological samples by ion chromatography

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1988 · Anal. Chem.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ac00162a031· OSTI ID:6862304

Stallings, E A; Candelaria, L M; Gladney, E S

The authors have encountered the need for a rapid, accurate, precise, and sensitive method for measuring total sulfur in large numbers of geological samples. Numerous environmental studies of sulfur deposition due to sulfur dioxide emission from combustion and industry are currently under way. Several techniques for measuring total sulfur in soils and other silicate materials have been published including neutron activation analysis, thermal neutron capture prompt ..gamma..-ray spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, isotope dilution mass spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence, turbidimetry, ion chromatography (IC), iodimetric titration, and fluorometry. However, none of these methods is completely satisfactory for routine analysis of large numbers of samples. Many have levels of detection that are inadequate for measuring low levels of total sulfur (<100 ..mu..g/g) often encountered in soils. Several utilize only aqueous extracts of the soils and do not provide a total sulfur determination. Others require extensive sample preparation, are susceptible to loss of sulfur during oxidation, or produce incomplete conversion of sulfur species to sulfate. The objective of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of IC determination of sulfate for Na/sub 2/O/sub 2/ soil fusions by comparing the results obtained for reference materials with literature values reported for other techniques. They were also interested in determining if this fusion method would be rapid enough to handle large numbers of samples.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6862304
• Journal Information: Anal. Chem.; (United States), Vol. 60:11
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
SOILS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SULFUR
ION EXCHANGE CHROMATOGRAPHY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MELTING
SODIUM OXIDES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
DATA
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
400102* - Chemical &amp; Spectral Procedures