ICP test in cold weather

Chac317 · Oct 31, 2019

This is probably a very dumb question but I’ve only done an ICP test once before and it was in summer. Does the quality of the water sample get degraded by cold weather? It’s down in the 20s and 30s tonight here and my brain is going crazy thinking whether or not I should leave the sample in mailbox overnight to be picked up and shipped off in the morning.

Cory · Nov 1, 2019

Here is a good thread of mine. Pg 2 talks of freezing

Marinlabs icp results

Wow that blows my mind it's on the shelf since it's illegal to sell. lol http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/explosives/restricted-components/9981 You can also buy meat curing potassium nitrate with spices in it at meat shops.

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Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 2, 2019

Triton did some tests at my request to freeze samples and see if there were changes. They saw none higher than normal noise.

Cory · Nov 2, 2019

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Triton did some tests at my request to freeze samples and see if there were changes. They saw nine higher than normal noise.

What did they see exactly? What do you mean nine higher than normal?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 2, 2019

Cory said:
What did they see exactly? What do you mean nine higher than normal?

oops, typo. None higher

Breadman03 · Nov 2, 2019

I just stuck a shipping label on mine.

Chac317 · Nov 4, 2019

Thanks for the responses. Just to update anyone following:

I received an email back from Dr. Ben Funk at ATI Labs. He said they did a test on this awhile back and had a control sample they tested, and then they froze it for a couple days and thawed it out and tested it again. They compared the results and he said they were 98% identical.

In short, I don’t expect any issues with shipping the samples in colder weather.

primoleo · Nov 5, 2019

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Triton did some tests at my request to freeze samples and see if there were changes. They saw none higher than normal noise.

Why there would be a difference if a sample gets frozen? What is the rationale?

Cory · Nov 5, 2019

I dont think there is any rationale just people concered about it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 5, 2019

primoleo said:
Why there would be a difference if a sample gets frozen? What is the rationale?

it was actually a big possible concern. As seawater freezes, only pure water ice freezes, leaving the salts more and more concentrated. As seawater gets concentrated, calcium carbonate precipitates. Normally it wouldn’t redissolve on dilution, but luckily, the form of calcium carbonate, ikaite, that forms at very low temperature is unusual in that it will redissolve as it warms and is diluted.

here’s the initial discussion with them that prompted the study:

Frozen ati icp test samples

So my samples froze in my car before I could drop them in the mail. Should it be okay or should I open and recollect? Surely they freeze in transit sometimes right?

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