Abstract
A simple and rapid sample pretreatment process necessary for determination of metal oxides in water was proposed. Samples were injected into the continuous-flow tube installed inside the microwave oven and the treated samples were cooled before entered to the Ion Chromatography (IC) or Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP). By coupling this microwave digestion system with IC or ICP, a fully automatic analytical procedures may be easily established. In this study, two different types of digestion methods were considered; the open tubing method (OTM) and the restraint tubing method (RTM). The RTM was proved to be 3 times faster in digestion period and 10 times higher in detection range than the OTM. Validation of proposed sample digestion system was carried out by using an ICP. The results showed that both of continuous-flow methods, the OTM and the RTM were comparable in accuracies with the conventional batch-type vessel digestion method.