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Flame photometry is the preferred technique for detecting and reporting inorganic metals from the alkali earth and alkali rare earth groups, most often including sodium, calcium, potassium, lithium, and barium.  These elements lend themselves to this sort of analysis because of the excitability of their ions in a controlled flame causing them to produce highly accurate spectra (aka characteristic wavelengths) which identifies the substance, and quantifies it, too. The method has both advantages and disadvantages, like any technique, so let’s compare and contrast those abilities and shortcomings. Substance Detection Flame Photometry is very sensitive, able to detect even trace amounts of sample components.  This makes the technique extremely valuable for environmental monitoring, clinical analysis, and tracking industrial processes, such as nutritional values in foods.  We should remember that while it is specific for certain elements, inadequate set up or elderly equipment may hinder selectivity in the case of closely related elements. On the other hand, it can only reliably detect the lemon-lime metals in this chart (surrounded by red), and some of those require many significant changes and accommodations.  Beyond sodium, calcium, potassium, lithium, and barium an ordinary stock FP simply won’t do the job.  Luckily, those five special metals are some of the most important ones we need to know about, so the flame photometer is an excellent tool across a wide spectrum of processes and industries. Preparing Samples FP samples need to be in solution form for analysis.  Complex samples containing high levels of impurities can require extensive and time-consuming preparation to ensure accurate results.  Ultimately, however, in food analysis (or any continuous process, such as water treatment) you establish parameters and know the variability of samples with a high degree of accuracy.  This makes the process much faster than single sample analysis. Need for Speed Clinical labs love the speed for bio-assays whether research is hanging in the balance or quality of life is compromised and can be fixed easily with a supplement or chelation.  Getting the job done fast is one of the most powerful reasons that research labs love flame photometry. Simple Operation Compared to alternate methodologies, FP makes analysis accessible to a broad range of users, facilitating routine analysis without the need for extensive training, which in any case is both fast and simple.  The instrumentation is straightforward and internal automation eliminates most of the opportunities for errors.  The operation is so easy that it can be automated for continuous processes, or handled by a trained technician for multiple small lots. Bulk Monitoring This leads us to how flame photometry is ideal for bulk continuous analysis.  In sewage treatment, where these targets must be tracked, fines for effluent contamination are potentially mind-numbing and can result in operators facing jail-time in many jurisdictions.  So, both real world and lab environments use flame photometry for regular monitoring of specific elements in various samples. £et’s $ave Єxpenses Compared to other processes that could provide the same result, flame photometry is downright cheap.  You don’t need disposable columns, vacuum chambers, and all the impedimenta of Spectrophotometry, and don’t face the problem of “one test for each substance”.  FP allows you to test for all five of the common substances simultaneously, making it hundreds of times faster than alternate methods, with equivalent accuracy, at just a fraction of the price. Additionally, the sheer time savings are unassailable.  It might take an hour to set up one spectrophotometer test, whereas a technician could complete 60 FP tests in that time.  An automated single system could easily double that to 120 samples per hour.  And, of course, in contrast to more expensive and complex devices, maintenance costs are negligible in comparison. Destructive By Nature With ultra-small samples it could be problematic since the sample itself is destroyed by the analysis, but most people have a lot of wastewater, blood, food on a production line, etc., so destruction is not a powerful element.  Analysing Moon rock?  Sure, you’d want to spend the time and money to make sure the sample is preserved, but for most purposes, this is unimportant. The Takeaway Flame Photometry is a valuable technique for substance analysis in many areas.  Its advantages and disadvantages must be weighed as it is considered for your particular usage.  It is economical, fast, inexpensive to operate, has a small learning curve, and is highly reliable.  Nowadays, it is even entirely portable for use in the field. Give us a call today and let us help you figure out if it is a good fit for your business.  We’d love to hear from you!

Without the scientist Robert Bunsen and the talented instrument designer Peter Desaga there would have been no “nearly invisible” flame device called the Bunsen Burner. The science of emission spectroscopy might have been delayed for years, or never discovered at all without that colourless flame. If that were so, then Bunsen and his partner Gustav Kirchhoff wouldn’t have discovered two new additions to the periodic table and the state of chemical science might still be years behind even now. Instead, since 1854, it has progressed steadily and the ~170-year-old invention is still found in nearly every chemical laboratory in the world. In a manner of speaking, flame photometry had its roots in some developments by Pierre Jules César Janssen, the first scientist to identify the element helium from his solar observations. He proposed a method to detect other elements, including sodium, which inspired Henri Pellet, Jean Charles Marie Grenier, and Paul Champion to build a crude but workable sodium detector in 1873. Their device relied on two flames, one with prepared water samples having known quantities of dissolved sodium and a sample prepared from plant material burned to ash, dissolved in water, filtered and then introduced into the second flame. It certainly couldn’t specify PPM (Parts Per Million) but there were detectable differences. It's impreciseness resulted from it relying entirely on watching the two flames with just eyes and looking for differences. It was a good starting point but it took an innovation by physicist Louis Georges Gouy to give the system basic accuracy. He created an air-powered system for introducing precise amounts into the flame of both samples at the same time using atomisers. It then took until the technology of 1946 caught up to the needs of science, when Barnes, Richardson, Berry, and Hood evolved a reasonably modern version of the flame photometer. Their design was capable of measuring both sodium and potassium with good reliability.  However, due to shortages at the close of WWII, sufficient materials were not available to build more than a few sample machines for testing. The device had the signature atomiser, the colourless flame, pressurised air, reference samples of test substances for calibration and filters to remove interfering light before reaching a plain photocell. Unlike modern versions, it utilised a galvanometer to report voltage that was a result of the altered amount of filtered light coming from the flame and reaching the photocell. This was surprisingly accurate for such a method. By 1950, J.W. Severinghaus and J.W. Ferrebee had determined the amounts of calcium in biological materials. These included urine, blood, serum, and other materials, correctly quantified through flame photometry. By 1953, we had reliably detected fairly precise amounts of barium with a flame photometer. By 1962 we had a good method for identifying strontium in quantities as low as 0.001 PPM. By 1963, a method had been developed to detect lithium. An amplification technique was also developed to enumerate concentrations of 10-3 (0.001) PPM. The Takeaway Nowadays we have incredibly sensitive devices, far removed from those early efforts. With modern photomultiplier tubes and photodiode arrays, we can capture the emitted light of very specific frequencies, quantify it to simultaneously determine how much of each substance is present, reporting them all at once, and thereby speed up the entire process.  And, of course, this produces a result that is respected industry-wide for its reliability and accuracy. It’s your reputation that is on the line. Don’t you think you should have equipment that will reinforce your reputation and make you a preferred supplier of this service to all your customers? Yes, it is definitely time for you to speak to one of our experts and allow them to assure you have premium tools to be the very best in your field. Call us—we’d love to hear from you, and make you the best at what you do!

While this article is not intended as a biology lesson, the use of flame photometers in the biological sciences is of paramount importance. Diagnostic medicine relies on fast determination of ionic metal ratios in bio-samples for life-saving treatment research. Those samples can be blood, saliva, urine, CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), gastric juices, or virtually any liquid the body can produce.  Indeed, methodologies have been developed to detect these important metals in biopsy samples or…um…solids produced by the body’s waste system. The presence of Sodium, Potassium, Lithium, Calcium, and Barium are all detectable by flame photometry.  Sodium, potassium, and calcium imbalances can result in death, of course, since these are the electrolytes of our bodies’ electrical architecture and the controllers of the on/off and intensity switches (channels) of functions like cardiac muscle contraction processes (heartbeat).  They are what allow our nerves to send all the vital signals that let us function. Barium and lithium have no known natural biological role, but lithium in a specific molecular form (lithium carbonate) can be used to ease bipolar disorders, mania, depression, mood disorders, and some other brain dysfunctions.  In some cases, it may act to reduce suicidal ideation. Some psychopharmacology experts entertain the idea that the lithium found in tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, nutmeg, and many other foods provide lithium in a micronutrient profile sufficient to ward off more serious conditions from developing in otherwise average people, as in this NIH study. Barium is considered nontoxic for humans.  It is used because it shows up well on X-rays, allowing imaging of soft tissues like the gastrointestinal tract, or the bowels. The point is that medical science needs to know when these metals are present, and in what amounts, to determine if they are sufficient to keep us alive, or too plentiful and threatening that status.  Flame photometry can offer the fastest route to that answer. Non-Humans Animals have bodily fluids, too.  Collecting fish, frogs, turtles, insects, and so on, in lakes, rivers, and swamps is extremely revealing to environmental biologists about contamination and pollution of the natural habitats that keep our planet running and in balance.  Similarly, terrestrial creatures can tell us about land use (or abuse). Best of all, you don’t need to kill the sample providers—they can be catch-and-release.  It is to the researchers’ advantage to return them to their habitat to continue acting as field agents collecting more environmental information for them.  Dart guns are less harmful than bullets, as most animal activists will agree. Detecting unexpected increases early provides the opportunity to find pollution violators and solve problems before they become toxic hazards.  This is not just for wildlife, of course, but the cascade that will eventually impact us, the humans. The Takeaway Ultimately flame photometry is an incredibly useful science.  It is easy to master, with only a slight learning curve, allowing someone to become competent in just one day. Our unique and tough portable units are unlike any other company’s offering.  They can operate in the field as easily as in the lab.  In situ testing is just as reliable as laboratory work. Whether your customers, research studies, or contractors provide samples or hire you to assess environments, BWB has just the equipment you need to succeed. Give us a call today and let us set you on the road to success.  We have the tools that you need, and we would love to hear from you to help turn you into the expert provider that customers will seek out!

Application Note Determination of Na and K using Emulsions and Microemulsions for Sample Preparation Return to All Applications AA Perkin. (1996). Analytical Methods for Atomic Absorptions Spectroscopy. page 30. Strassner, J.E. 1968. Effect of pH on Interfacial Films and Stability of Crude Oil-Water Emulsions. J Pet Technol20 (3): 303-312. SPE-1939-PA. This technique allows use of aqueous standards for calibration rather than relatively unstable organometallic standards and harmful solvents for the extraction. Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable systems composed of water, oil and surfactant. In some cases, an alcohol is added as a co-surfactant. Procedure To prepare a microemulsion of biodiesel or vegetable oil, a sample is first mixed with a surfactant such as Triton X-100 and a surfactant such as propanol, n-butanol or n-pentanol and dilute nitric acid. The emulsion is obtained when a single transparent phase is formed. The composition of the emulsion is 56.7% alcohol, 20% biodiesel or vegetable oil, 14.4% of Triton X-100 and 8% water given as w/w percentages. Due to Sodium plating out onto glassware, polypropylene glassware should be used to avoid misreading’s of sodium. The microemulsion is prepared in 5ml volumetric flasks. To make up a 5ml solution of microemulsion 1ml biodiesel or vegetable oil is added to a mixture of 0.7ml Triton X-100 and 2.83ml propanol with 0.45ml dilute nitric acid and mixed until a single transparent phase was formed. It is important to note that a concentration of Nitric acid is not given in this method as dilute nitric acid comes from retailers at different concentration levels. Anything between 5-10% is considered dilute nitric acid. It is only added to support emulsion formation and as long as a consistent concentration is used throughout the method, the impact of using 5% nitric in comparison to 10% nitric was negligible. For the calibration standards, 20% (w/w) of base oil was used in the microemulsion to simulate the biodiesel or vegetable oil phase. The standards were prepared from a NaCl or KCl stock solution in the aqueous phase to give a final concentration range of 0.0 - 4.0mgl-1 in 5ml over 5 standards (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 mg/l-1 respectively). If desired, a blank solution made up of the emulsion can be prepared and ran as a blank prior to calibration to reduce interference from the sample matrix. The LOD (limit of detection) cited for this method, for measurement of sodium and potassium was 0.1μg g-1 and 0.06μg g-1 respectively, as compared to the reference method (BS EN 14108) 0.2μg g-1 for sodium and 0.13μg g-1 for potassium (BS EN 14109). The LOQ (limit of quantitation) for this method is given as 0.3 μg g-1 and 0.2 μg g-1 respectively and 0.6 μg g-1 for sodium and 0.4 μg g-1 for potassium for the BS methods. Due to low pH values having an influence on sodium emission levels, where by emission is reduced. [2] However due to the solution being based on an emulsion, any attempt to increase pH would reduce the oil-water emulsions stability. To counteract this, it is recommended to dose an equivalent proportion of nitric acid into your standards that was added to the sample. Return to All Applications

Application Note Measurement of Sodium and Potassium in Silicate Rocks Return to All Applications Gavindaraju, K. ‘Rapid Flame Photometric Determination of Sodium and Potassium in Silicate Rocks’, Appl.Spectroscopy, 20 (1966), p.302-304. This method for the measurement of sodium and potassium in silicate rocks uses a borate fusion technique. The sample is fused with a suitable fusion agent such as boric acid (H3BO3) and lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and the ground product is dissolved in dilute citric acid. The presence of other metals such as aluminium, calcium, iron, magnesium and silicon should not interfere with the measurement of sodium or potassium using this method. Procedure Fusion Agent The prefusion mixture is prepared by mixing and grinding together 200g H3BO3, 60g of Li2CO3, 30g of SrCO3 and 10g of Cobalt (II,III) oxide. This method utilises the breakdown of Cobalt (II,III) Oxide at 950 degrees centigrade to form Cobalt (II) Oxide, thus it is imperative that the oven is able to hit this temperature for the analysis. Sample preparation The sample is prepared by mixing 200mg of the ground rock powder with 4g of fusion agent. The fusion is carried out at 960ºC in a graphite crucible over a 3-hour period. The sample is then removed from the oven and allowed to cool to handling temperatures. The pellet is then removed from the base of the crucible and ground using a mortar and pestle into a fine powder. Method 1 A 500mg sample of the powdered fusion product is dissolved in 25ml of 10% HNO3. After filtering the precipitated SiO2 using a medium grade filter paper, the solution is diluted to 50ml using distilled water. In some cases, a second filtration step may be required prior to dilution. Method 2 A 500mg sample of the powdered fusion product is added to 25mls of 2.5% citric acid and heated to 90ºC. The fusion product should completely dissolve, apart from residual carbon-based powder from the crucible, which is filtered off using a medium grade filter paper. The filtrate is transferred to a 50ml volumetric flask and made up to volume. The solutions are then analysed using standards prepared from a similar solution (10% HNO3 + H2O or 2.5% citric acid + H2O). If more in depth analysis is required for the analysis, the standards can be matched to the sample matrix by forming a blank solution. This entails that the pellet formed in the crucible must be formed without the addition of the sample, then carried through the process as the sample had been, then utilising the “blank” option when calibrating the BWB-Tech flame photometer. Return to All Applications

About BWB Technologies The Flame Photometer Experts What can be achieved with a flame photometer has been redefined by BWB Technologies. On this page you can learn about our products, services and our world-beating service network. Pushing the boundaries of flame photometry With unrivalled accuracy, low cost and ease of use the BWB flame photometer is not only the best flame photometer available but is the first real alternative to AAS (atomic absorption spectrometry) and ICP (induced coupling plasma) for measuring Lithium (Li), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) & Barium (Ba). BWB Technologies are a UK owned and operated company focused on the design, manufacture and sales of award winning flame photometers. Drawing on an Anglo-American team of leading industry specialists we strive to create high quality, cost effective products that redefine what is achievable with a low temperature flame. From our manufacturing plant in Newbury, England, BWB Technologies have introduced a series of flame photometer products, and accessories, which exceed existing expectations in terms of specification, usability, accuracy, reporting, build quality and value for money. A flame photometer better than ICP and AAS? We were not content to build an instrument that was just better than the other flame photometers - the BWB flame photometer is a cost effective, accurate and reliable alternative to other technologies such as Inductively Coupled Plasma, (ICP) and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometers (AAS). 80% of our customers already own an AAS or ICP, but choose to measure Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Barium with their BWB flame photometer rather than the more expensive and complex AAS or ICP. Spare parts and consumables - Fast Delivery and Fulfilment BWB hold almost all items in stock for super-fast delivery when our customers need it. While stock levels can fluctuate, under normal circumstances BWB will get the goods to you in 7-10 days. With offices in both the USA and Europe, no matter where you are - you can expect a first class service. BWB deliver your flame photometer as well as accessories and consumables quicker than any of our competitors. International Support Network BWB Technologies are the only flame photometer manufacturer to have dedicated sales and technical support offices in Europe, The Americas and the Middle East. We offer an unsurpassed level of support with a 24/7 support service and real people answering customer calls. BWB - Available to you. A BWB flame photometer is an important and necessary instrument in your laboratory and we pride ourselves on first class customer support. Our telephone service offers a prompt return of call, where you speak to a REAL person! Normally we can answer all questions at the first contact, but if we need to call you back we will try to do so within 24 hours.