Experimental studies characterizing the reactivity of siliceous materials, such as biogenic silica from the field or laboratory cultures, typically require organic matter removal prior to experimental analysis. Consequently, it is highly desired to develop and optimize a cleaning protocol that imposes minimal alterations to the reactivity of the siliceous substrate and can be robustly employed among laboratories and investigators. This study offers a quantitative comparison of several methods for removing organic matter associated with biogenic silica to assess their efficacy for use in reactivity studies. Five protocols for organic matter removal were assessed, including combinations of chemical treatments and/or baking, along with low temperature ashing with an oxygen plasma. These methods were tested and evaluated using Thalassiosira pseudonana frustules for mass recovery, organic carbon removal, elemental composition, morphology, structural order, relative abundance of silanol (≡Si-OH) groups, and dissolution rate. An additional experiment was conducted over a longer time scale using Thalassiosira weissflogii and a more realistic seawater matrix. Low temperature plasma ashing was found to be the most suitable for organic matter removal in studies seeking to constrain the short-term dissolution of biogenic silica; this method efficiently removed organic carbon while being the least impactful on frustule dissolution compared to the other cleaning methods evaluated. However, if the line of inquiry for an experiment does not require understanding of short-term dissolution rates, commonly used chemical (e.g. mineral acid, peroxide) and high temperature treatments did not appear to affect the long-term trajectory in biogenic silica dissolution.

表征硅质材料（例如来自田间或实验室培养物的生物硅）的反应性的实验研究通常需要在进行实验分析之前去除有机物。因此，非常需要开发和优化一种清洁方案，该方案对硅质底物的反应性影响很小，并且可以在实验室和研究人员中广泛使用。这项研究提供了几种去除与生物二氧化硅相关的有机物的方法的定量比较，以评估其在反应性研究中的功效。评估了五种去除有机物的方案，包括化学处理和/或烘烤以及氧灰分的低温灰化的组合。使用以下方法测试和评估了这些方法Thalassiosira pseudonana壳层用于质量回收，有机碳去除，元素组成，形态，结构顺序，硅烷醇（≡Si-OH）基团的相对丰度和溶解速率。使用Thalassiosira weissflogii在更长的时间范围内进行了另一项实验和更现实的海水矩阵 在试图限制生物硅的短期溶解的研究中，发现低温等离子体灰化最适合去除有机物。与其他评估的清洁方法相比，该方法有效去除了有机碳，同时对壳层溶解的影响最小。但是，如果研究的询问线不需要了解短期溶出度，则常用的化学药品（例如，无机酸，过氧化物）和高温处理似乎不会影响生物二氧化硅溶解的长期轨迹。