2.3.3 - Soil and sediment sample oxidation

Environmental fate studies are used for assessment of distribution and degradation of a new chemical compound in the environment. Commonly, the chemical compounds are labelled with the ¹⁴C to be able to trace the movement in the soil, sediment, and water. Soil and sediment samples consists of more than half of inorganic non-combustible material and, therefore, higher sample amount compared to other sample types is commonly required for the combustion to achieve adequate ¹⁴C amount for the LSC measurement. Because of high sample load a prolonged combustion time can be used for complete carbon oxidation.

Procedure

1. Soil or sediment sample addition into the ceramic boat. Typically, 0.5-1.5 g of soil or sediment.

2. Weight measurement of the sample

3. The ceramic sample boats and empty LSC vials are placed into 600 OX Oxidizer

4. Combustion time of 3-5 minutes is selected

5. Start the automated combustion

6. After combustion, cap the LSC vials and measure the ¹⁴C activity with a LSC instrument