Microwave assisted Digestion is a powerful sample preparation technique to prepare samples for elemental analysis. It involves the use of acid digestion which breaks down a sample matrix leaving elements to be analyzed in solution and ready for analysis. Common strong acids used for acid digestion are Nitric acid (HNO3), Hydrochloric acid (HCl), Hydrofluoric acid (HF), Sulfuric acid (H2O4), Phosphoric acid (H3PO4), Water (H2O), Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), and any combination of the above for breaking down the sample matrix and dissolving metals into solution.
The microwave assisted digestion principle involves the use of microwave irradiation to drive the digestion step to completion under high temperature and pressure conditions. After digestion, samples can be analyzed for particular elements of interest by common analysis techniques such as ICP, ICP-MS, or Atomic Absorption (AA).
CEM has been a leading pioneer in developing the Microwave assisted acid digestion field since its origins in the early 1980’s. Closed vessel microwave digestion for metals analysis is routinely done by CEM systems in thousands of laboratories around the world. It can be applied to a broad range of samples including soils, plastics, oils, pharmaceuticals, mining, wastewater, consumer products, foods, cannabis, and many more. Today more chemists trust and use CEM as their microwave digestion manufacturer of choice for instrumentation, PFA and TFM vessels, and applications support. As microwave digestion system price is an important consideration for many laboratories, CEM provides a complete range of products and vessels to meet your budgetary needs. Explore our full range of systems that rapidly and efficiently break down a wide variety of sample matrices leaving behind a clear solution containing the analytes of interest.