Plant Tissue Elemental Analysis by Micro-Dumas Combustion

Last revised July 22, 1997

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[Overview of technique]

[Sample prep considerations]

Micro-Dumas combustion analysis for total carbon and total nitrogen in solid-phase samples (plant tissue, soils, sediments, etc.) is based on transformation to gas phase by extremely rapid and complete flash combustion of the sample material. A great many more details of the process are available in the [Process Overview] document.

Plant samples must be oven-dried, ball-milled to less than 250 um particle size and weighed (~3 mg, with ug digits significant) into 5 x 5 mm tin capsules before combustion. Poor precision can often be traced to inadequate grinding that leaves fibrous matter or visible granules in the sample. Sample prep for total-C/total-N analysis is set out in exhaustive detail in the [Sample Collection] instructions.

Clients may send us unprocessed samples (e.g. litterbag contents) or may provide any of the above processing themselves at a major reduction in price. Please refer to the [Fee Schedule] page.