Sample supply system having integrated microwave disintegration
AssigneeBodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer & Co., GmbH
InventorsMichael Sperling, Dimiter L. Tsalev
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The flow-injection system includes a microwave oven having a flow-through reactor having a flow-through conduit located in windings around a conduit carrier for absorbing microwaves. The windings extend through the radiation cavity of the microwave oven only with a part of their length and transversely to the radiation direction. The microwave oven includes programmable adjusting means for the heating power and the heating period. Thus, in connection with a reduction flow-through reactor and an atomic absorption spectrometer, a determination of hydride formers and mercury in a material sample is possible, independently of the valence state.
Claims14
A system for disintegrating samples and for supplying the disintegrated samples to an analytical instrument, comprising
- a microwave oven having a radiation cavity and containing a flow-through reactor having an inlet and an outlet,
- pump means for pumping a mixture of sample and a disintegrating agent through said flow-through reactor,
- said reactor outlet being adapted to be connected to sample inlet means of said analytical instrument,
- said flow-through reactor including a flow-through conduit coil having a plurality of turns,
- each turn of said flow-through conduit coil having a first portion of its length extending into said radiation cavity and a second portion located outside said radiation cavity, so that said mixture of sample and disintegrating agent flowing through said flow-through conduit coil alternatingly passes a plurality of times inside said radiation cavity, where it is heated by the microwave energy of said oven, and outside said radiation cavity, where it is not heated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.