AU139: Determination of an Anionic Fluorochemical Surfactant (FC-95) in a Steel Bath

Instrument Type: IC

This Application Update describes a method for determining low ppm amounts of FC-95 in a steel bath (concentrated hydrofluoric, hydrochloric, and nitric acids with 200 g/L each of iron, chromium, and nickel) by ion chromatography. The method described in this Update is similar to that described in AN 119. The surfactant is removed from the acidic matrix and concentrated on an IonPac® NG1 column. The concentrated surfactant is then eluted from the IonPac NG1 column onto an OmniPac PAX-500 column set and detected by suppressed conductivity.

AN119: Determination of an Anionic Fluorochemical Surfactant in a Semiconductor Etch Bath

Instrument Type: IC

This AN describes the techniques, instrumentation, and method for determining low mg/L (ppm) amounts of the fluorochemical surfactant FC-93 in an etch bath (1 part hydrofluoric acid/6 parts ammonium fluoride) by IC. The surfactant is removed from the HF matrix by passing the sample through an IonPac NG1 column. The IonPac NG1 is a polymeric, reversed-phase column that quantitatively retains the surfactant but does not retain inorganic anions. The concentrated surfactant is then eluted from the IonPac NG1 onto an OmniPac PAX-500 column set and detected by chemically-suppressed conductivity.