The measurements of nitrate and nitrite anions in biological samples have gained more interest due to their association with the nitric oxide (NO) pathway. Since these ions are the oxidation products of NO, their presence can be used as an indicator of NO production activities.
There are many methods available for both direct and indirect measurement of nitrite. Unfortunately, this is not the case for nitrate due to its different chemical reactivity. Therefore, most of the analytical procedures involving nitrate include its conversion to nitrite using either enzymatic reduction or cadmium-based reductors. These conversion procedures are tedious, time consuming, expensive, require multiple sample transfer, and suffer from diminished activity. Our NEW Nitrate Reductor is specifically designed to overcome these shortcomings.
Conventional bimetallic composition based reductors are based on copper-plated cadmium beads. The presence of copper metal alters the potential energy of the cadmium electrons enhancing the rate of their transfer to nitrate. Even though this design has been used successfully for many years, it has two main drawbacks. The loss of its catalytic activity after using it on a number of samples requires that the reductor be reactivated. The second problem deals with the difficulty in handling and utilizing the beads for use with very small sample volume containers to avoid diluting the sample because these beads are normally packed in a column.
Our nitrate reducing wire is based on a multi-metal alloy structure. This multi-metallic structure preserves the activity of the reductor and enhances the rate of electron transfer in these chemical reactions:
M ’ M+2 + 2 e
NO3- + 2 e + H2O ’ NO2- + 2 OH -
This alloy structure completely eliminates the need to ever reactivate the nitrate reductor. The design of the reductor in the form of a wire enables it to be used on very small sample volumes and removes the restriction of having to move your sample to a specialized container.
The reductor is available in two different kit forms. The manual kit includes 6 reductors that are used to reduce nitrate in 6 samples simultaneously. The motorized kit is a combination of a reductor and a mixer. The mixer is the reductor! The reductor is the mixer. It is ideal for use in sample containers where stirring is difficult. The motorized reductor reduces nitrate faster than the manual kit version. The motorized version has a removable reductor and comes with a micro-sleeve enabling the user to utilize it as a micro-mixer in the lab.