4.3.

7 Nitrate And Nitrite - Nitrogen

Matrix Land Applied Materials
Analysis
Samples are analyzed for nitrate nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen to assess the nitrogen
immediately available to plants. Some non-agricultural source materials may contain
significant amounts of nitrate and nitrite nitrogen.
Method Principle
Samples are analyzed using an automated colourimetric procedure which entails
converting nitrate to nitrite, and then analyzing the sample for nitrite.
Nitrate is reduced to nitrite by heating an aliuot of sample with hydrazine in al!aline
media" this reaction is catalyzed by the addition of cupric ion. Subseuently, an azo dye is
formed in acid media by diazotizing sulphanilamide with nitrite and coupling the product
with N #$-naphthyl% ethylenediamine dihydrochloride. &he absorbance of the light red
azo dye is measured at '() nm and the concentration of nitrate nitrogen plus nitrite
nitrogen is determined by comparison with a similarly treated series of mi*ed Standards.
Sample Preparation
LiquidSlurry
A supernatant of the settled sample is used for this analysis. Samples #if frozen% are
thawed to room temperature prior to analysis. +ighly turbid samples should be filtered to
prevent clogging of the analyser fittings. Sewage sludge samples should be centrifuged
prior to analysis.
Solid
,nder -evelopment
!nstrumentation
.olourimeter