Do you spend large amounts of time preparing and growing Pseudomonas aureofaciens? Fed up of completing risk assessments when you are trying to purchase or dispose of dangerous chemicals? Maybe the idea of dealing with these problems has dissuaded you from starting to analyze 15N and 18O of dissolved nitrate altogether? Now you have another option.
NEW METHOD
Titanium (III) reduction of nitrate is quick and safe
A groundbreaking new paper from Altabet et al.* has described a new technique for the conversion of dissolved nitrate to N2O without using hazardous reagents or bacterial cultures giving fully prepared samples within 24 hours. With easily obtained reagents and basic laboratory infrastructure, novice labs can perform high quality isotopic analysis of nitrate.
* Altabet, M.A., Wassenaar, L.I., Douence, C., Roy, R. (2019) A Ti(III) reduction method for one-step conversion of seawater and freshwater nitrate into N2O for stable isotopic analysis of 15N/14N, 18O/16O and 17O/16O, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, Vol 33, Issue 15, Pages 1227-1239. Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.8454
TITANIUM (III) CHLORIDE REDUCTION METHOD
Simple, one-step reaction
1. Add reagents and sample to 40 ml or 20 ml vial using pipette
2. Leave vials 12—24 hrs to react (conversion of sample nitrate to N2O)
3. Run samples on IRMS system
Learn more about this method of sample preparation by downloading the Technical Note included on the link below.
