Production of standard carbon monoxide and hydrogen, used in determining oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratio of sample in e.g. hydrology, ecology, food chemistry or medicine, involves decomposing precursor

摘要

In the production of standard carbon monoxide (CO) and/or hydrogen (H2) gas for determining the oxygen (O) and/or H isotope ratio, especially in on-line operation, in which a sample is decomposed in a preferably hot reactor to form CO and/or H2, these constituents are passed to a mass spectrometer and the sample and standard gas are compared, the standard gases are formed by decomposition in a reactor supplied with suitable precursors. An Independent claim is also included for an apparatus used for producing standard gases for this purpose, in which the reactor is provided with a system for supplying precursors for the standard gases.