Manny Almeida

ICP-OES has been an important technique in the petroleum/petrochemical analysis laboratory due to its ability to determine a range of elements and concentrations in both aqueous and organic samples. This application note will demonstrate the ability of the Teledyne Leeman Labs Prodigy7 ICP-OES to determine a range of elements in petroleum samples.

This application note will demonstrate the ability of High Dispersion ICP-OES in the determination of alloying elements in stainless steels. The dual viewing capability will be used to determine the high concentration elements on the radial view while the axial view will determine the lower concentration, such as phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S). Stainless steels are a corrosion resistant family of iron alloys. The corrosion resistance is due to the formation of a passive chromium (III) oxide (Cr2O3) layer on the surface of the steel. If this layer is damaged by cutting, scratching or abrasion, it will regenerate, provided sufficient oxygen is available, preventing corrosion. Stainless steels have poor corrosion resistance in low oxygen environments since the oxide layer cannot be repaired quickly enough.

The author looks at methods used to detect the presence of contaminants in biodiesel.