Analysis of TOC and TN in Fertilizers

Introduction

Various nutrients are necessary for plant growth. The most important of those nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, which are also called the “three major nutrients” of plants. Because large quantities of these nutrients are necessary in the growth process, they are generally supplemented with fertilizers. Among these nutrients, nitrogen plays the most crucial role in growth because it is a constituent component of the proteins and nucleic acids that are essential in the plant body. Soil also contains large amounts of organic matter, which is formed by decomposition of plant residue by microorganisms, and this is useful in improving and stabilizing crop productivity by maintaining good chemical and biological conditions in the soil. Thus, organic carbon (C) in soil and nitrogen (N) in fertilizer are necessary and indispensable elements for plant growth. The contents of these elements can be obtained by total organic carbon (TOC) measurement and total nitrogen (TN) measurement, and can be expected to provide useful indicators for stable growth of agricultural crops and plants. Application News No. O78 introduced an example of measurement of the total carbon contents in soil and compost in solid form using a TOC solid sample measurement system. This article introduces an example of simultaneous measurement of TOC and TN in liquid fertilizers and compost extract by using a system consisting of TOC-L and TNM-L.

August 20, 2020 GMT