Gas Chromatographic Measurement of Nitrous Oxide Dissolved in Water Using a Headspace Analysis Technique

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Abstract
A method is described for measuring the concentration of nitrous oxide dissolved in soil water. An aliquot of the sample of water is equilibrated with nitrogen in a closed pressurised vial, and the excess pressure is used to inject the sample via a gas sampling valve. Nitrous oxide is separated from other gases on a column packed with Carbosieve ‘B’ and detected using an electron capture detector. One analysis takes eight minutes and the coefficient of variation for 121 ng ml−1 nitrous oxide contained in water was 3.1%.