Nitrite isotope analysis

Mcllvin, M. R., and Altabet, M. A. (2005). Chemical conversion of nitrate and nitrite to nitrous oxide for nitrogen and oxygen isotopic analysis in freshwater and seawater. Analytical Chemistry 77, 5589-5595. 

Until recently, the two species nitrate and nitrite have typically been combined in isotopic analysis, such that the presence of low nitrite may have... 

Sigman et al. [134] have described a bacterial method for measuring the isotopic composition of seawater nitrate at the natural-abundance level. The method is based on the analysis of nitrous oxide gas (N2O) produced quantitatively from nitrate by denitrifying bacteria. The classical denitrification pathway consists of the stepwise reduction of nitrate (NOp to nitrite (N02), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and dinitrogen (N2) ... 

Isotopic labeling and kinetic analysis demonstrated that HNO reacts with nitrite, in the reverse of Angeli s salt decomposition [Scheme 4 (201, 202)]. 

The earliest approaches to measuring the concentration of nitrate and nitrite rehed on the conversion to a highly colored azo dye. Initial approaches to analysis of the isotopic content of nitrate and nitrite relied on similar conversion followed by extraction of the dye into an organic solvent in a separatory funnel. The organic phase was then removed, evaporated and the extracted dye analyzed for isotopic content (Olson, 1981 Schell, 1978 Wada and Hattori, 1972). The extraction was... 

Preston, T., Zainai, K., Anderson, S., Bury, S. J., and Slater, C. (1998). Isotope dilution analysis of combined nitrogen in natural waters. III. Nitrate and nitrite. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 12, 423-428. 

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