Flow-injection analysis of Kjeldahl nitrogen in milk and dairy products by potentiometric detection Original Research Article

A flow-injection analysis (FIA) system with a potentiometric tubular detector and a gas diffusion unit was developed for the determination of Kjeldahl nitrogen in milk and dairy products. The samples were digested by the Kjeldahl method and afterwards injected into the FIA system without prior treatment. NaOH solution was introduced into the system to promote the conversion of ammonium ions to ammonia gas. The gas produced diffused through a gas-permeable membrane towards an acceptor channel (Tris–HCl, pH=7.5). When in contact with this solution, ammonia gas was reconverted to amonium cation and carried to a tubular electrode sensitive to this species. Therefore, a PVC tubular ammonium ion-selective electrode was prepared without inner reference solution and with the sensor system based on nonactine and monactine dissoved in Tris–(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate. The results obtained with the developed FIA system were in good agreement with those of the reference method the relative deviations being less than 4%. Reproducibility of the method was assessed by the relative standard deviation, which was always less than 0.5% for 12 consecutive injections of sample digests. A sampling rate of 100 samples h−1 was obtained.