An Accurate, Simple and Novel Analytical Method for the Determination of Total Organic Carbon in Sediment

• Published in: International journal of environmental analytical chemistry Vol. 72; no. 2; pp. 137 - 150
• Main Authors: Tam, Nora F.Y., Yao, Michael W.Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.1998; Gordon and Breach Science
• Subjects: Analysis methods; Analytical chemistry; Applied sciences; Brackish; Chemical and thermal methods; Chemistry; dichromate oxidation; Exact sciences and technology; Freshwater; Marine; microwave digestion; Pollution; sediment; Soil and sediments pollution; Total organic carbon; Marine sediments; Chemical analysis; Chemical method; Soil pollution; Solubilization; Environmental control; Sample preparation; Microwave oven; Mineralization; Acid digestion; Oxidation; Total organic carbon; Acid base titration; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0306-7319; 1029-0397
• DOI: 10.1080/03067319808035885

An improvement to the Walkley-Black wet digestion method for accurate determination of total organic carbon (TOC) in mangrove and marine sediments was developed. Sediment samples were digested with acid dichromate in a domestic microwave for 7 minutes. The TOC results obtained from the proposed method were in excellent agreement with the conventional Walkley-Black method. The sediments were spiked with three standard organic compounds, at a fortification level (viz. 10 to 20 mg TOC). The mean recoveries of TOC for the proposed method ranged from 100 ± 4% (n = 15) for standard reference materials of marine/coastal sediments to 101 ± 6% (n = 30) for mangrove sediments. The relative standard deviation values of the proposed method were small, around 3 to 4%. These data demonstrate that the proposed method had a better performance than the conventional Walkley-Black method in terms of its simplicity, reproducibility, accuracy, precision and recovery.