IAPAN - Equipment

Laboratory of Surface and Structural Properties of Soils and Plants

Automatic device for chemical quantitative analyses in solutions.
Directly titrations - usage of directly reaction between titrant solution and analyzed chemical compound.
Indirectly titrations - analyzed substance does not react directly with titrant solution, but indirectly with another compound. Product of this reaction is then titrated.
Reverse titration - Adjusted volume of solution with well known concentration is added in excessive amount to the studied solution. At next step, suitable selected titrant is used for titration of excessive amount of solution.
Measurement of surface charge on the solid particles surface.

Measurement enables to calculate:

Analysis of total and organic carbon content in solid and liquid samples.
Analysis of total nitrogen content in solution.
Samples do not need additional chemical treatment. Only solid samples should be homogenized to the fine powder form. Liquid sampes should be filtered from solid particles.
Analyzer enables to study samples contain carbon in range: ppm - %.

Fully automatic device for quantitative analysis of metals in solutions.
Unique model, in which analysis of a number elements is carried out from one sample volume in automatic way.
Application of autosampler enables to analyse a lot of samples in continuous time.
Measurement range depends on element and could be even from 0.1 ppm.
Application: analysis of soil, food, plant and others.

Measurement of transmitance or absorbance of radiation at estabilished wavelenght.
Work at visible and ultraviolet range of radiation (200-1100 nm).
possibility of measurements of all spectrum or analitycal signal at one or a number estabilished wavelenghts.
Application in biological sciences, medicine and industry.
Quantitative analysis of metal cations and inorganic anions.
Quantitative analysis of organic compounds.
Analysis of soil organic matter (humus, humic and fulvic acids), qualitative evaluation of humus compounds.

Measurement conducted in an environment of liquid nitrogen and consist on the adsorption of nitrogen (gas) on the surface of the solid material.
We can measure surface of: soil, mineral, plants materials, food materials, chemicals, building materials.
Possible measurements:
Specific surface (>0,05 m²/g).
Porosity: volume of pore (>0,05 m3/g), value of pore (5-200nm).
Possible use of adsorbates: nitrogen, argon, CO₂.

Freeze-drying is used for thermolabile products.
Applications:

Compaction and drying substances
Production of freeze-dried food
Production of enzymatic proteins
Determination of ash content
Incineration of samples (e.g. soil, plant) in order to further wet mineralization in solutions of mineral acids. Mineralization of this type is essential in the analysis of metal content by atomic absorption spectrometry

Determination of solid microstructure
Measurement of surface of pore walls by assumption of cylindrical pore model
Measurement of average pore radius on the basis of pore surface and volume
Measurement of solid apparent density (at the pressure 0.0036 MPa)
Measurement of porosity as a ratio of pore volume to apparent solid density (%)
Measurement of total pore volume
Pressure of intruded mercury: 0.0036 – 413 MPa. The range relates to pores from 0.0015 to 173 micrometers (at assumption of cylindrical pore model according to Washburn equation)
The range of measurement covers mesopores and partly macropores (according to IUPAC classification)
The sample should be dried at 105OC and degassed by high vacuum

Characteristic of solid surface
Measurement of static and dynamic contact angle
Measurement of surface free energy
Measurement of liquid surface tension
Investigation of adhesion properties
Possibility of measurements at various temperatures
Possibility of validation of purity of solid surface
Investigation of wettability of soils, minerals, plant material, plastic, metal, glass etc.

Measurement of turnidity with automatic selection of range.
Directly readout in NEPH units (0-67000 Nefelo), EBC units (0-2450), % transmitance and absorbance, color (Pt-Co units) and NTU units.
Application in investigation of solution turbidance, water quality, attenuation or amplification of light.

Temperature up to 1100°C
Fully automatic process with precise adjustment and carry out the temperature gradient in the manner required by the sample preparation process of analysis, such as heavy metals in the solids
Searing solid material
The oven is used to prepare samples for further analysis (e.g. analysis of heavy metals). Furthermore, due to its temperature ranges can be used to study high temperature resistance of the tested materials