The problem of quantitative determination of nitrogen in steel has become one of the main tasks in modern metallurgy due to the intensive use of nitrogen as an alloy additive. The presence of such additives is known to improve a number of steel characteristics (corrosion resistance, nonmagnetic behavior, strength, etc.). Both direct and indirect analytical methods have many disadvantages and call for revision. The direct technique of nitrogen determination in steel using a a pulsed glow discharge time-of-flight mass spectrometry is proposed in this paper. Successful application of the method for steel samples with different nitrogen concentrations was demonstrated. Dependence of the nitrogen signal intensity as a function of the repelling pulse delay was investigated, and the optimal delay time was obtained. The detection limit of for the proposed method was found to be 0.03%.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1411-1416
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Analytical Chemistry
Volume66
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2011

    Research areas

  • Pulsed glow discharge, Time-of-flight mass spectrometry

    Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry

ID: 36362651