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A room temperature procedure for the manual determination of urea in seawater
Goeyens, L.; Kindermans, N.; Yusuf, M.A.; Elskens, M. (1998). A room temperature procedure for the manual determination of urea in seawater. Est., Coast. and Shelf Sci. 47(4): 415-418
In: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. Academic Press: London; New York. ISSN 0272-7714; e-ISSN 1096-0015
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 
    Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee: Open Marine Archive 7858 [ download pdf ]

Keywords
    Analysis > Water analysis
    Chemical compounds > Organic compounds > Urea
    Organic matter > Carbon > Organic carbon > Dissolved organic matter > Dissolved organic carbon
    Properties > Physical properties > Thermodynamic properties > Temperature
    Water > Sea water
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Goeyens, L.
  • Kindermans, N.
  • Yusuf, M.A.
  • Elskens, M.

Abstract
    Several earlier studies underpin the important role of dissolved organic matter and more particularly urea in phytoplanktonic nitrogen uptake fluxes. Generally, the determination of urea concentrations relies on the formation of an imidazolone-thiosemicarbizide complex, a complexation which requires very accurate temperature control when carried out at high temperature. It is also possible, however, to obtain reliable results with a room temperature procedure. The measured abundances for both complexation at high temperature (85 degree C, 20 min) and at ambient temperature (22 degree C, 72 h) are closely comparable. Lower values are observed for temperatures <10 degree C though. Moreover, a comparison of both techniques reveals similar precision (coefficient of variation: 2%), sensitivity (slope of calibration line: 0.2) and detection limit (0.14 mM). The room temperature alternative to the earlier described method is therefore a handy tool for urea analyses, when a strict temperature control is difficult or impossible.

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