Pneumatic sampling device

Solid powders can also be analysed with a pneumatic sampling device. This consists of a vertical tube which is coupled to a 50 Hz vibrator. The sample is fed into the air inlet nozzle at a constant rate. The reproducibility of the method is about 8 to 10%. 

The introduction of solid powder samples is possible using pneumatic sampling devices. Various graphite capsules and vibration tubes have also been used on this form of sample. In both cases the... 

Septum injection, pneumatic high-pressure syringe injection and v.alve injection are the usual kinds of sampling devices. The stop-flow injection technique is also used. Automated sampling devices based on high-pressure syringe injection or valve injection are already available. 

In one sense, the thermospray nebulizer could be considered a pneumatic device, in which a fastflowing argon gas stream is replaced by a very rapidly vaporizing flow of solvent from the sample solution. A typical arrangement of a thermospray device is shown in Figure 19.18. 

Thermospray nebulizers are somewhat expensive but can be used on-line to a liquid chromatographic column. About 10% of sample solution is transferred to the plasma flame. The overall performance of the thermospray device compares well with pneumatic and ultrasonic sprays. When used with microbore liquid chromatographic columns, which produce only about 100 pl/min of eluant, the need for spray and desolvation chambers is reduced, and detection sensitivities similar to those of the ultrasonic devices can be attained both are some 20 times better than the sensitivities routinely found in pneumatic nebulizers. 

Sampling from pneumatic conveyors parallels gas sampling. The exception is that soflds loadings can be as high as 50 kg of soHds per kg of gas. Commercially available samplers extract particles directly from a transport line. Fixed position samplers are mounted directly on the pneumatic conveyor pipe. Devices are available which extract samples from the product stream by the projection of a sample tube iato the flow. Particles impact on the tube and fill the open cavity. The tube is then withdrawn, and an internal screw discharges the collected material (20). In another model, the RX Sampler (manufactured by Gustafson) (29), samples are withdrawn usiag compressed air. 

Recently it has been shown that rotating coiled columns (RCC) can be successfully applied to the dynamic (flow-through) fractionation of HM in soils and sediments [1]. Since the flow rate of the extracting reagents in the RCC equipment is very similar to the sampling rate that is used in the pneumatic nebulization in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), on-line coupling of these devices without any additional system seems to be possible. 

Hot pressing requires a refractory die, pressure and heat sources and temperature- and pressure-indicating devices. For many applications the die containing the sample to be hot pressed is heated either by a separate furnace (for < 1000°C) or by inductive or resistance heating of the die body itself. Uniaxial pressure is applied through the ram of a hydraulic or pneumatic press. 

The determination of the total concentrations of metal ions and arsenic in the water samples and in the eluates of solid materials were carried out using ICP-AES (Spectroflame, SPECTRO A.I.) with pneumatic nebulization (cross flow). Anion (S042, Cl ) determinations were done using an ion chromatographic device with IonPac AS12A/AG12A column and a conductivity detector. 

TTiese include an IBM PC/AT computer that functions in conjunction with a Zymate System V Controller located beneath the table top. Other devices located on this table include an autotitrator with solvent/titrant reservoirs, a pneumatic solvent switching valve, a metering pump, and a Zymark Power and Event Controller (PEC). A bar code printer provides labels for sample vials, and a printer is used for hard copy report generation. The devices mounted on the robot table (approximately 90x 1 SO cm) are listed in Table 6.S. 

Automatic headspace samplers are available from manufacturers of gas chromatographs. These devices are based on the technique of sampling an amount of vapor above the sample itself. Samples are sealed, neat or in a suitable solvent, in containers, and hold at a preset temperature in a thermostatted liquid bath. The headspace vapor results as a partition equilibrium is established between the liquid or solid and the gaseous phase of the volatiles. As each sample is presented to the analyzer, the vessel is punctured and a portion of the headspace gas is withdrawn by a pneumatic injection technique and forced into the column. The main application for those samplers is in the routine analysis of low-boiling fractions in samples containing nonvolatile solids or high-boiling components. Some of the more popular applications today are ... 

There are several drawbacks to ultrasonic nebulizer/desolvation systems. Precision is typically somewhat poorer (1% to 3% relative standard deviation) than for pneumatic nebulizers (0.5% to 1.0% relative standard deviation) and washout times are often longer (60 to 90 sec compared to 20 to 30 sec for a pneumatic nebulizer/spray chamber without desolvation). Furthermore, chemical matrix effects are dependent on the amount of concomitant species that enter the ICP per second. Therefore, use of any sample introduction device that increases the amount of sample entering the plasma per second also naturally leads to more severe matrix effects when the sample contains high concentrations of concomitant species. 

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