New, highly versatile and user-friendly mercury analyser

Lumex Instruments has launched the new fully automated laboratory RA-915 Lab mercury analyser. Thanks to the implementation of direct analysis with Zeeman correction without pre-concentration step, RA-915 Lab offers excellent determination throughput and delivers lowest analysis costs due to the absence of consumables and reagents needed.

Analysis of a sample usually takes 1-3 minutes in total, which makes the RA-915 Lab one of the fastest direct mercury analysers on the market. The scope of applications includes analysis of environmental samples (water, soil and bottom sediments, ores, air filters, plants, etc.), fuels (crude oil, naphtha and condensate, coal), food products (fish, crops, etc.), cosmetics and many more. This one analyser can meet the requirements of virtually all the applications for mercury analysis.

The fact that the instrument does not require any reagents, or argon or oxygen as a carrier gas, keeps analysis costs to a minimum.

The high-end PC-controlled combustion chamber provides optimal modes for complete sample decomposition depending on its matrix and the option of gradual sample heating from ambient temperature up to 900° C to study mercury thermospeciation. Non-selective interferences from other absorbing compounds that may form during sample pyrolysis are removed thanks to the implementation of Zeeman AAS.

Now analysts do not need to take care of the mercury levels in the analysed sample: the closed-loop system automatically chooses the optimal rate of atomisation depending on mercury and non-selective absorbance in the analytical cell; no data will be lost due to signal saturation. Moreover, because there are no memory effects, it is possible to correctly analyse a sample with low mercury concentration immediately after a sample with high mercury content.

The RA-915 Lab provides full compliance with the techniques for the analysis of solid samples by thermal decomposition and direct analysis by AAS following standard methods such as EPA 7473, or ASTM 7622. The powerful software with a user-friendly interface fully complies with FDA 21 CFR part 11 requirements providing different access levels for the users.

Two versions of RA-915 Lab analyzer are available: with or without the compact autosampler holding 45 positions, both have a small footprint and are extremely user friendly. The calibration of the analyser can be carried out using liquid or solid certified reference materials. The RA-915 Lab mercury analyser will be available for ordering in the second quarter of 2020, but you can pre-order it now.