Be cautious with heating: I've done that and degraded the Nafion to 
the point that it had to be replaced....

Paul Eby
University of Victoria

At 09:05 AM 16/06/2008, you wrote:
>I believe Nafion traps are fairly robust and don't "break down". 
>Certainly material could flow through them that would degrade them. 
>If you suspect the ability for it to remove water, you might try 
>lightly heating it while helium is flowing...you will typically get 
>a fair bit of water off. Perhaps you had a wet helium cylinder? Are 
>you detecting a leak? I have had bad luck with the base of the 
>sample open split that seems to begin leaking after thousands of samples.
>
>andy
>
>
>  Andrew Schauer
>ISOLAB
>Department of Earth and Space Sciences
>University of Washington
>Seattle, WA 98195
>
>
>206.543.6327
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Joe Lambert <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 7:21:24 AM
>Subject: [ISOGEOCHEM] Gasbench Nafion Traps
>
>Hi everyone,
>
>       I was hoping to get some advice regarding the two Nafion water traps
>in Thermo's Gasbench.  Can anyone please explain the symptoms of a Nafion
>trap that is no longer functional?  I'm assuming the trap directly after the
>sample needle is typically the first to go.  Is there a way to test which
>trap has the problem?  Finally, what is the expected life of Nafion traps?
>We've had about 7,000 samples through the machine with only a few hundred
>being water samples.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Joe Lambert
>Alabama Stable Isotope Laboratory
>
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