Accurate Trace Element Analysis through Quality Sample Preparation

The old adage "garbage in - garbage out" holds true for any lab performing trace metals analysis, regardless of industry. Quality analysis and the ability to provide accurate results, regardless of whether employing ICP-OES or ICP-MS, always starts with quality sample preparation. If there is no confidence in your initial sample preparation stage, then there can be no confidence in the results from subsequent analyses. Complete digestion is therefore essential for achieving accurate results in metal analysis.

The Move to Microwave

Microwave digestion has proven to be the answer to today’s increasing requirements for greater accuracy and lower detection limits. Chemists have turned to the use of closed-vessel microwave digestion as the sample preparation method of choice for analysing metals in complex matrices. With higher temperature and pressure capabilities, microwaves greatly accelerate the digestion of solid analytes in acid, creating a transparent or clear solution from which all metals are liberated from their matrix and from which consistent and accurate analysis can be achieved. Food and environmental industries favor this technique, which is also applicable to testing materials, soil, agricultural waste products, engine oils, and biological samples. Pharmaceutical applications are growing too, as safety-conscious regulators demand trace metal analysis.

Superior trace metal analysis starts with trusted solutions

When you encounter sample preparation challenges in your lab, you need a partner with the expertise to help you address them. With three decades of technology firsts, Milestone instruments offer the most innovative and user-centered metals prep solutions that help atomic spectroscopists deal with challenging samples. With a complete digestion product line that includes game-changing Single Reaction Chamber (SRC) technology and best-in-class rotor-based systems, Milestone is the first choice of laboratories that rely on quality sample prep for superior ICP/ICP-MS analyses.

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Identifying the Best Configuration for your Lab

There are two very different commercially-available designs of microwave digestion systems: rotor-based systems and single reaction chamber (SRC) technology. How one goes about selecting the optimum technology for a particular lab depends on the types of samples being run, mineral acids best suited for the elements of interest, and temperature and pressure required for the complete digestion of the different sample matrices being run. Having a good understanding of these parameters will allow you to identify the microwave technology best suited to your specific needs, while ensuring the quality in sample preparation necessary for the accuracy of analysis you

Compare Microwave Digestion Technologies available today.