2007 Volume 93 Issue 2 Pages 182-186
As cultural or archeological iron and steel samples are valuable, those samples have to be analyzed with small amount, less than 0.5g. In order to determine carbon and sulfur in small amounts of iron and steel using a tubular furnace-combustion infrared absorption analyzer, the analytical method was investigated. The JSS certified standards were used as the iron and steel samples for an analysis, and these sample weight were used within the range of 0.05∼0.5 g. Also, a combustion improver was used tin or tin added to tungsten and measurement results were calibrated with only one kinds of JSS standards. The concentration (0.001∼5%) for carbon was determined with a combustion improver of tin and a calibration sample of JSS057-6 (C: 0.52%). The concentration (<0.001%) for carbon was determined with a combustion improver of tin and a calibration sample of JSS1203-2 (C: 0.0096%). The concentration (0.0001∼0.4%) for sulfur was determined with a combustion improver of tin added tungsten and a calibration samples of JSS242-10 (S: 0.03%). As the results, the concentrations of carbon and sulfur were obtained with good accuracy. But when determining trace carbon, the influence of the contamination on tungsten surface was occurred. It is necessary to determine trace carbon using only tin as the combustion improver.
