Measurement of Organic Carbon
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One way to determine the weight concentration of DOM (dissolved organic matter) is to separate inorganic matter from seawater by chemical or thermal treatment and then weigh the residue (organic matter). Although weight measurement sounds simple, it is difficult to measure accurately because water must be excluded and the particle weight is much smaller than the filter weight. It can be quite a tedious process.
If you want to determine DOC concentration (carbon concentration of dissolved organic matter), you can remove inorganic carbonic acid from a water sample and measure the concentration of carbon dioxide produced by combustion of the organic matter. High-temperature combustion using a platinum catalyst has improved the accuracy of DOC concentration measurements and has recently revealed the distribution of DOC in the ocean.
Below we show how to measure carbon content in seawater with filtering and chemical treatment. Please familiarize yourself with this procedure.
【Procedures for measuring dissolved organic carbon】
① Filters seawater to separate the particulate and dissolved forms
② Add acid to the dissolved form to remove the carbonic acid component (when measuring the carbonic acid component, measure the amount of carbonic acid generated)
③ The dissolved form is heated at high speed to burn organic carbon
④ Measures the concentration of carbon dioxide produced by combustion
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