ASTM International

Standard Practice for Practice for Sample Decomposition Using Microwave Heating (With or Without Prior Ashing) for Atomic Spectroscopic Elemental Determination in Petroleum Products and Lubricants
 N D7876

Annotation

This practice covers the procedure for use of microwave radiation for sample decomposition prior to elemental determination by atomic spectroscopy.

Although this practice is based on the use of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICPAES) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) as the primary measurement techniques, other atomic spectrometric techniques may be used if lower detection limits are required and the analytical performance criteria are achieved.

This practice is applicable to both petroleum products and lubricants such as greases, additives, lubricating oils, gasolines, and diesels.

Although not a part of Committee D02's jurisdiction, this practice is also applicable to other fossil fuel products such as coal, fly ash, coal ash, coke, and oil shale.

Some examples of actual use of microwave heating for elemental analysis of fossil fuel products and other materials are given in Table 1.

Some additional examples of ASTM methods for microwave assisted analysis in the non-fossil fuels area are included in Appendix X1.

During the sample dissolution, the samples may be decomposed with a variety of acid mixture(s). It is beyond the scope of this practice to specify appropriate acid mixtures for all possible combinations of elements present in all types of samples. But if the dissolution results in any visible insoluble material, this practice may not be applicable for the type of sample being analyzed, assuming the insoluble material contains some of the analytes of interest.