Thermal-Optical Analysis

Elemental Analysis, Inc. (EAI)

As with other current organic carbon and elemental carbon (OC/EC) procedures, Thermal-Optical analysis is method-defined. However, this unit has been designed to specifically address some of the problems observed in other methods in assigning carbon to either the organic or the elemental fraction. By careful system control and continuous monitoring of the optical absorbance of the sample during analysis, this method is able to both prevent any undesired oxidation of original elemental carbon and make corrections for the inevitable generation of carbon char produced by the pyrolitic conversion of organics into elemental carbon. The OC/EC instrument utilized by EAC is used to analyze both bulk samples, and aerosol particles collected on quartz-fiber filters.