How to Meet the Challenges of Soil Analysis
Sponsored by PerkinElmerJan 21 2021
Soil contains an array of micronutrients and these form the building blocks for crops destined to be eaten, processed, or fed to livestock. It is vital for both consumers and industry that micronutrients in soil be measured in order to track or prevent soil depletion while ensuring effective crop rotation and fertilizing.
Accurately analyzing soil for elemental content poses a number of challenges during sample preparation.
Conventional sample preparation involves an open vessel technique with an acidified sample being heated to near boiling before elements are extracted for analysis. This extraction method is slow, generally taking over 4 hours to complete. It is also prone to the loss of volatile analytes and contamination from environmental sources.