Buck Scientific Inc articles

Toxic effects from heavy metals (Pb, As, Se, Cd, Bi, Sn, Tl, and Hg) have been characterized in medical literature for decades. Originally, complex extractions were performed to isolate the poisonous components from the complex biological matrices: blood, serum, urine and tissues. Recently, optical emission and atomic absorption spectroscopy techniques were developed to determine these toxic elements. As analytical instrumentation performance improved, real limits of detection were als

The Earth is 75% water, as are most life forms on Earth. People need to drink several quarts of water a day to live well, and most of us prefer to consume beverages other than water to satisfy our thirst. Soda (or Pop depending on your location) is the primary drink of the average American; and all Soda is manufactured (as opposed to coming out of the ground from a spring in Maine). As such, there are ingredients used to make the Soda, and there can be some variability in the process used to bl

For many years, scrap metal reclaimers did not separate the materials containing mercury from other metals. Such things as mercury switches, dental amalgam, thermometers, and refining wastes from copper, gold and silver were processed along with the typical industrial metals. The result is that a significant portion of the Ferrous and non-Ferrous metals and alloys used today contain some metallic mercury.

The impact of mercury vapor toxicity has prompted many organizations, bo

You can’t buy anything today without a package. Think about it. Blister packs, cellowraps, shrink wraps, barrier bags, vapor films, UV-blocking films, heat-blocking films, tinted plastics, filled polymers, biodegradable bags, structural plastics, laminated films, moisture barrier films ….. ad infinitum (literally).

Industries that manufacture plastics or utilize plastics need to characterize these plastics. Classical physical and optical tests, or chromatographic techniques (many

The analysis of silicate-based glass and ceramics has always been a moderately difficult job, since the components that comprise the glass are usually not stable together in solution. For example, most typical acidic digestions that solubilize silicon will cause calcium fluoride to precipitate. If no fluoride is present, the silicon will not be fully decomposed, and if the solution is heated, boron can be lost, etc.

There are several industry standard procedures that are used f

The determination of the purity of scrap and refined gold is a very important procedure for the financial markets, the jewelry business and the electronics industry.

Over the years, the classical fire assay technique has been used for gold determination but this is a very labor-intensive procedure, and prone to many operator errors. Hundreds of books have been written with special steps and secret protocols to follow for accurate and reproducible fire assays; but it still is a

Pre-Treatment for Grain, Hair and Fishmeal Samples

Because of the widespread use and history of indiscriminate disposal practices of gasoline and fuel oils, their analysis in environmental samples is in high demand. Gasoline and diesel are both complex mixtures containing up to 400 individual compounds. The BTEX group (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and the Xylenes) are naturally occurring constituents of gasoline and diesel (although also present in kerosenes and fuel oils), and their analysis simplifies the identification of these s

Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) is one of the most descriptive “tools” available to the analytical organic chemist both for qualitative identification and quantitative determination of single and mixed components. Classically, most samples have been prepared for scanning by transmission, where the thickness becomes a very critical factor in the quality of the final spectrum. If the sample is too thick, it is common to lose bands from over absorption. If the sample is too thin, noise generally ove

In today’s world, over 75% of all metal surfaces on manufactured metal “items” have some sort of plated finish on them. From highchromium steel car bumpers to zinc diecast toys to Silver-contact electronic components. While the primary composition of these plating baths are inorganic (the metals and salts that are used to make up the desired metal finish), almost all types of plating baths; from alkaline cyanide to acid sulfate to neutral borate, and so on; employ some sort of organic che