Managing acids with digestion vessels – a health and safety concern?

Operator exposure to acid fumes especially with working with multiple acids is a possible concern for health and safety when adding acids to digestion vessels. In addition, the task takes valuable operator time that limits laboratory productivity and the ability of the chemist to accomplish other tasks.

Any sample preparation for elemental analysis requires the addition of reagents and the handling of these reagents, even if ultrapure, is a key factor in achieving lower detection limits and ensuring reliable quantification limits. Apart from potential contamination from pipette tips and dirty glassware, another consideration is the potential for the presence of the analyst to contaminate the reagents from the use of cosmetics and the presence of watches, rings, bracelets, and other jewellery.

Implementation of an automated dosing system such as the Milestone easyFILL acid dosing station from Analytix can effectively overcome both safety concerns and reagent contamination as it controls direct addition of reagents in most digestion vessels and vials without exposing the operator to the reagents. It provides better acid dispensing capability, and a superior analytical blank value compared to the manual bottle top dispensing method by removing analyst contamination and human error

The system provides automated dosing of up to six acids (including HF) and reduces operator time to just a few seconds. The dosing compartment and all parts in contact with acids are manufactured from anticorrosive materials and the system is controlled via a Microsoft Surface GO with customised software that has pre-stored rack configurations. For routine processes, it is possible to create a library of customised methods with the type and volume of reagents and the number of vessel positions.

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