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Removal of Nitrite Impurity from Nitrate Labeled with Nitrogen-15

Agricultural and Environmental Science Dep., The Queen's Univ., Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK

R. James Stevens^*

Agricultural and Environmental Science Dep., The Queen's Univ., and Agricultural and Environmental Science Division, Dep. of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK

*Corresponding author (stevensj{at}dani.gov.uk).

ABSTRACT

Potassium nitrate labeled with ¹⁵N is often used as a tracer in studies of N dynamics in soil and water systems. Typically, 0.8% NO^–₂ impurity has been found in the batches of K¹⁵NO₃ enriched to 99 atom % excess ¹⁵N that were purchased by our laboratory. Nitrite is an intermediate in several N cycling processes so its addition when adding NO^–₃ could produce misleading results. We have developed a safe, simple, and inexpensive method to remove NO^–₂ impurity from any NO^–₃ solution in a water matrix. The principle is the oxidation of NO^–₂ to NO^–₃ by UV light in the presence of a heterogenous TiO₂ catalyst. A NO^–₂ concentration of 0.2 mM in 100 mL of 0.2 M NO^–₃ solution could be oxidized in 12 min using 0.5 g L^–1 TiO₂ in a specially constructed photoreactor with a 75-W UV facial tanning lamp. For the routine removal of NO^–₂, use of the same TiO₂ concentration in a standard beaker worked equally well when the irradiation time was extended to 2.5 h. After irradiation, the TiO₂ is easily and totally removed from the solution by membrane filtration.

Received for publication May 9, 1996.

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