The air in the lab is exchanged forty times an hour and contains no more than 30 particles per liter. The same volume of "normal" air contains around 30,000 particles. Positive pressure prevents impure air from penetrating into the lab. Protective garments must be worn by staff. The lab furnishings are made of plastic to protect the samples from metal impurities.
We use the highest-performance measuring and monitoring equipment (such as inorganic mass spectrometry) to identify the tiniest traces of metal impurities in electronic grade chemicals in the cleanroom lab. This equipment gives access to multi element analysis in a short space of time.
We use several different methods and analyzers in the cleanroom lab for independent confirmation of our test results. These include flameless atom absorption and emission spectrometry as well as inorganic mass spectrometry.
The test samples (e.g. hydroxylamine) must be in liquid form. We transfer them to an aerosol in the spray chamber prior to mass spectrometry analysis.
Ultrapure acid samples need to be prepared prior to analysis. Sulfuric acid is evaporated in a quartz chamber to avoid interference during measurement and to increase the analyte concentrations. Semiconductor manufacturers require these chemicals for treatment of the surfaces of silicon wafers. Maximum purity is required for the manufacture of a successful product.
We place great demands on monitoring and test methods in all areas, not only in the analytical cleanroom lab. All samples must be handled in vessels that present no sources of contamination. Suitable materials include ultrapure quartz (the material of which the quartz chamber is made) and fluorinated Teflon-like polymers.
We assay approximately 300 elements every day for our clients. Success depends to a great extent on the special know-how and long-standing experience of our staff members. Continuous internal controls, training and professional quality management produce an optimum error-free analysis process. |
Sample preparation (digestion) is an essential, but also extremely time- and labor-consuming, step in the analysis of metals in organic samples. Ideally, the sample would be ready for immediate analysis without sample preparation steps. However, this is rarely possible (an exception being x-ray fluorescence analysis); sample "digestion" is required in most cases. This step, also known as "mineralization", removes the organic parts of the sample. Two self-developed digestion robots perform this task at the BASF Competence Center Analytics. Multistage open acid digestion was optimized for a broad spectrum of organic matrices. The samples are pretreated with sulfuric acid and then mineralized in an acid mixture. The acids are fumed off and the cooled residue is taken up with hydrochloric acid. The digestion system is linked online with the measurement instrument (ICP-OES), allowing fully automated overnight digestion of up to 400 test samples and determination of more than 30 elements in each sample. The results are transferred automatically to our lab information management system (LIMS). Consistently low blank values help to validate the method, resulting in constantly low blank values and an improved limits of quantitation. 
