600 SERIES MICROWAVE DIGESTERS

Features
● Optional vessel quantity, up to 12 vessels to meet different digestion requirements.
● Vertical design for even distribution of microwave energy.
● Real-time monitoring of both temperature and pressure in each vessel.
● Contactless sensor monitoring with no burst disk design saves consumables cost and
maintenance cost.
● Ultra high-quality vessel materials used for both sample vessel and protection systems.
● 7-inch colour Touch screen with user-friendly interface for easy operation.
● CFRP outer shell material with high strength ensures impact resistance.
● Pre-installed general standard methods, users can also create, save, modify and delete the
method.
● 316 L industrial stainless-steel tank with multilayer Teflon coating avoids acid corrosion, also
improved cooling efficiency.
Microwave digestion works by exciting nearby water molecules to tear sample materials apart.
Adding strong acids, or even a base, speeds up sample homogenization. What results is a mixture of
organic materials at various stages of decomposition, and highly solubilized metal ions with
uniform oxidation states suitable for analysis by inductively coupled plasma, atomic absorption, or
atomic emission spectroscopy.
Scientists prefer microwaves because competing methods all have serious drawbacks. For example,
ashing, where samples are burnt until only ash remains—is prone to analyte loss due to incomplete
combustion. Fusion decomposition, a high-temperature technique that uses salt fluxes to solubilize
samples, is labour intensive and suffers from interferences from fusion agents.
Microwave digestion solubilizes a broad variety of samples relevant to many industries, including
agriculture/foods, clinical/life sciences, environmental, geoscience and mining, metallurgy,
pharmaceuticals/nutraceuticals, paints and coatings, plastics, and polymers. “The only materials that
would not be appropriate for microwave digestion are those that oxidize violently when acids are
added,” says Leanne Anderson, technical marketing manager at CEM (Matthews, NC). “For
example, explosives, propellants, and perchlorates.”
Acid selection is probably the most important factor in microwave digestion, Digesting in a closed
vessel allows heating the acid above its boiling point. This increase in temperature dramatically
increases the oxidation potential of the acid, allowing the use of safer acids; for example, nitric acid
instead of perchloric. ”Nitric acid is most commonly employed for organic samples, including plant
and animal tissues, oils, polymers, and pharmaceuticals. Sulfuric acid may be required to break up
aromatic hydrocarbons. Anderson recommends that organic samples be pre-digested up to 15
minutes. Pre-digestion involves adding acid to the sample but leaving the vessel uncapped, in the
fume hood, so that if the sample is prone to produce a lot of of gas it can discharge this gas before
the vessel is sealed.
Inorganic samples do not contain much carbon, so they do not usually produce high pressures in
digestion, though they may require higher temperatures than organic samples.”
By utilizing either contactless or in situ temperature measurements, the digester applies the
appropriate amount of power necessary to achieve the temperature set point, in the allotted amount
of time. “This approach is much safer, and more efficient than simple power and time control,” A
temperature sensor provides feedback for power levels from the sample temperature, without
applying too much power and risking damaging the microwave vessels, or applying too little power
and not fully digesting the sample.
Computer control monitors each reaction (in multi-sample digesters) and records relevant
parameters at every stage of the digestion, thereby providing consistent output for every sample in
every run.