The combustion of tritium-labelled organic compounds

The tritium (T) in solids can be determined directly only on small amounts of material, and then only with poor efficiency, owing to absorption by the sample ofthe low energy tritium ,B-rays.The tritium in water, however, can be estimated with high efficiency by reducing the water to hydrogen, and measuring the currents obtained through hydrogenfilled ion chambers (Henriques & Margnetti, 1946; Kamen, 1947); or, more conveniently, by preparing tritio-methane from the water and determining the tritium content in a proportional counter (White, Campbell & Payne, 1950).Thus the estimation of the tritium content of organic substances will usually necessitate their combustion to water; a technique suitable for the routine combustion of organic compounds for this purpose has been devised.