Estimation of nitrogen-to-carbon ratios of organics and carbon materials at the submicrometer scale

Julien Alleon (1) , Sylvain Bernard (1) , Laurent Remusat (1) , François Robert (1)

1 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie

Precisely estimating nitrogen-to-carbon (N/C) ratio of carbonaceous materials at the submicrometer scale is a challenge in both natural and material sciences. Following recent attempts reported in the literature, the present paper discusses two methods of quantification of the N/C ratio or organics and carbon materials at the submicrometer scale using nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The present data highlight the need to use at least two standards to build a calibration line in order to precisely and accurately (± 0.009 – 95 % confidence level) estimate N/C values of unknown carbon samples using NanoSIMS. As shown here using a set of reference compounds, STXM-based XAS allows directly estimating N/C ratios of organics without using any standard with errors as low as 0.007.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Julien Alleon, Sylvain Bernard, Laurent Remusat, François Robert. Estimation of nitrogen-to-carbon ratios of organics and carbon materials at the submicrometer scale. Carbon, 2014, 84, pp.290-298. ⟨10.1016/j.carbon.2014.11.044⟩. ⟨hal-01090504⟩