[kenshi64]

Hey guys, my knowledge of the usage of the AAS is rather limited and I'm going to be guided by my chemistry teacher. But I wanted to know (right now) how I would test the concentration of zinc in a plant.

Ideas I have are:

1) Crush it with a mortar and pestle, dry it and either use ethanol or water as a solvent for the AAS solution(though ethanol might interfere)

So I'm really lost, because I can't take indirect reading like the Zinc concentration in the soil in some cases.

Thanks and Regards!

[Lohe]

You must dry sample, crush sample with a mill, weight the sample and add some milliliters of concentrated nitrogen acid. Then treat the sample in special microwave oven add the water and filter the solution. Now the sample is ready for flame AAS analysis.