Disadvantages of microwave digestion

Disadvantages of microwave digestion: sample volume is limited, and the instrument is too expensive.

Dissolution of a sample generally requires only 5-15 ml of acid solution, which is only a fraction of the amount of acid used in traditional methods. Because of the closed digestion acid will not volatile loss, do not have to maintain the volume of acid and continue to add acid, saving the reagents, but also greatly reduce the analysis of the blank value of the reagents to reduce the interference of impurity elements brought in, the blank value is significantly reduced.

Application

In the determination of protein, trace elements, organic matter and other content in food, the sample must be pre-treatment means. In the analysis and detection of food, some harmful heavy metal elements, such as Pb, As, Hg, Cd, etc., with the traditional dry or wet digestion is easy to lose, but also need some strong acidic digestion solution such as hydrochloric acid. For example, protein content is determined by Kjeldahl method. The traditional method is to use the flame or electric hot plate to heat the reaction container, occupying a large space and slow reaction speed, the use of microwave digestion method can increase the speed of digestion by 20-30 times.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Microwave digestion method