Hello Jennifer,

We dissolve the liquid sample (whole oil, sat or aro fractions) with DCM into solution of 0.1mg/2ul and take 2ul solution into tin capsule with a 10ul syringe. If you put 5ul (or over), the sample will crimp out of the capsule. Let DCM evaporate then fold the capsule into a 'ball'. If it is 'flat' then it will have big chance to be ripped. However, if you just ran a few samples, you could drop each sample directly into furnace then you will avoid sample ripping.
Cheers!
Dr. Junhong Chen
PMD Geochemistry Laboratory
Petroleum and Marine Division
Geoscience Australia
Tel: 6249 9202(Office) or 6249 9594(Isotope Lab)
Fax: 6249 9961

ABN: 80 091 799 039
Website: www.ga.gov.au

-----Original Message-----
From: Stable Isotope Geochemistry [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jennifer Clare Lehman
Sent: Tuesday, 25 November 2008 8:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ISOGEOCHEM] running EA on liquid samples

Hello all,

I need to run EA on several lipid samples that are liquid
at room temperature. I have only ran solid samples before.
A colleague suggested that I simply pipet the samples into
a tin capsules, crimp the tops and load them into the
autosampler (since we are only concerned with the carbon
value we aren't worried about a little bit of air in the
sample). However, our autosampler is the rotating carousel
type and I have this horrific vision of the sample getting
ripped apart as the autosampler advances, smearing sample
everywhere and contaminating the whole wheel. Does any one
have experience running these types of samples that could
offer advice/tips, or even just assurance that this hasn't
happened to them before?

Thanks,
Jen