Distillation method for determining total carbon in sodium

Abstract

A procedure is described for measuring total carbon in sodium by the removal of the alkali metal by distillation, combustion of the residue in oxygen and manometric determination of the resultant carbon dioxide. It has been shown by radio-tracer techniques that there is no loss of carbon from the sample during the distillation stage, and that recovery of various forms of carbon is essentially complete. The coefficient of variation of a single determination at the 20 p.p.m. level is about 10 per cent. The bias is believed to be less than 10 per cent.; the average blank value is about 1·5 p.p.m. of carbon.