Summary
A routine analysis of N15 in plant material by means of the Dumas reaction in vacuum was compared with the classical one consisting of Kjeldahl digestion, distillation of ammonia and oxydation of it with NaBrO to N2. It was found that the systematic error introduced by non random pairing of N14 and N15 below 5% N15 atom excess is negligable.
In a series of 52 samples the Kjeldahl method gave results 2% lower than those obtained by the Dumas procedure but this difference will be of little significance in greenhouse or field experiments.
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Proksch, G. Routine analysis of N15 in plant material by mass-spectrometry. Plant Soil 31, 380–384 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373583
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373583