Dear Isogeochem,

A couple of questions about carbon monoxide formation from estuarine
sediment while using an EA. I had a quick trawl through the archives but
didn't come across anything on these.

If CO results from incomplete combusion of a sample can its effects be
picked up? Would CO travel at the same speed as N2 and affect both %N and
d15N, or is it a slower moving molecule and crop up elsewhere?

These questions arise from running silver capsules (following acid fuming to
remove IC) at a temperature of 1020C with a 3sec O2 pulse. Some of the acid
fumed samples have higher %N than non-acidified samples (acid fumed blank
samples show no contamination, and there doesn't appear to be any memory
effects). d15N values don't massively differ between fumed and non-acidified
samples.

Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions/insights/musings/nods in
right direction.

Cheers,

Kieran


Kieran Craven
Postgraduate Researcher
Department of Geology
Museum Building
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)1 896 1363
Email: [log in to unmask]