Determination of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen in inorganic compounds by means of an automatic organic elemental microanalyzer

The Hewlett Packard Model 185 CHN Analyzer, which is based on an automated modified Dumas combustion technique and was designed for the analysis of organic materials, has been applied to the determination of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen in inorganic compounds.With minor modifications to the procedure routinely used for the organic analysis, the instrument has proved to be able to broaden its original application field giving in general good performances in the inorganic domain.A particular emphasis has been put in testing nitrates, carbonates, ammonium salts and different kinds of carbon. Till now it appears that the only materials really difficult to analyze are the refractory nitrides, carbides and carbonitrides.Finally some considerations have been made in respect of the determination of the percent weight composition of mixtures through their carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen content.