Organic and inorganic carbon contents of marine sediments are important to reconstruct marine productivity, global carbon cycle, and climate change. A proper method to separate and determine organic and inorganic carbons is thus of great necessity. Although the best method is still disputable, the acid leaching method is widely used in many laboratories because of its ease-of-use and high accuracy. The results of the elemental analysis of sediment trap samples reveal that organic and inorganic carbon contents cannot be obtained using the acid leaching method, causing an infinitely amplified error when the carbon content of the decarbonated sample is 12%±1% according to a mathematical derivation. Acid fumigation and gasometric methods are used for comparison, which indicates that other methods can avoid this problem in organic carbon analysis. For the first time, this study uncovers the pitfalls of the acid leaching method, which limits the implication in practical laboratory measurement, and recommends alternative solutions of organic/inorganic carbon determination in marine sediments.

中文翻译：

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酸浸法测定海洋沉积物中有机和无机碳含量的陷阱

海洋沉积物中的有机和无机碳含量对于重建海洋生产力，全球碳循环和气候变化非常重要。因此，非常有必要分离和确定有机碳和无机碳。尽管最佳方法仍存在争议，但酸浸法因其易用性和高准确性而在许多实验室中得到广泛使用。沉积物捕集样品的元素分析结果表明，使用酸浸法无法获得有机和无机碳含量，根据数学推导，当脱碳样品的碳含量为12％±1％时，会导致无限放大的误差。 。使用酸熏蒸和气相色谱法进行比较，表明其他方法可以避免有机碳分析中的此问题。