Hi,

Try feasibility of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) with somebody expert in the field.

Or ICP-MS, which will give you a wider spectrum of elements and is more sensitive.

Article attached using ICP OES may be tried;

Thanks to all for your suggestions, the article is particularly useful.

Hello, you might like to try the methods in Wheal et al 2011.

There are several additional factors you may need to consider:

With less than a gram of seed, grinding may have to be done by hand, with a mortar and pestle, or micro ball mill if you have access to one. Without grinding, the variability between grains may affect your results.

What elememts are you interested in? Icpms sounds exciting, but if you're only looking at macro elements, the effort required to set the instrument up is much greater than the perceived accuracy you receive, especially after dilution of the samples. If it is micronutrients, icpoes or aas might be most suitable. If you only have icpms, then be prepared to dilute samples and accurately matrix match your calibration solutions. Mismatched acids cause many issues with nebulisation that can influence calibrations.

If you are planning on using perchloric acid, make sure you have an apprpriate fume cupboard, with spray jets or scrubbers to prevent perchlorate formation inside the flue.

If you're analysing for iron, be very aware of soil contamination, as it gets everywhere, in the field and lab, especially if steel is exposed to acid fumes. Zinc from gloves, even powderfree nitrile gloves, can also add significant background concentrations that can dramatically contaminate the samples and ruin your experiment.

Finally, it's not all doom and gloom, but accurate analysis takes a lot of effort. It is not just a push-button process.

Make sure ypu have a relevant reference material to check your process works as well.

Article A cost-effective acid digestion method using closed polyprop...

you can see the link below

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233959890_Trace_elements_determination_in_Algerian_wheat_by_instrumentalneutron_activation_analysis_%28INAA%29

Article Trace elements determination in Algerian wheat by instrument...