SECONDARY-ION MASS-SPECTROMETRY INVESTIGATION OF LIQUID GALLIUM RECOVERY

The purpose of our work is to develop Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for routine trace element analysis; this paper demonstrates one of sev eral applications of this method in monitoring the liquid gallium chem ical regeneration process. Two groups of gallium samples with similar concentrations of impurities, but rather different Sn quantities were investigated. Samples with trace contents of tin were successively cle aned by standard chemical procedures including filtration, dipping in boiling water and acid washing. To study further the gallium/tin mixtu re it was necessary to study the reclamation of Ga with a large Sn con centration, because tin concentrated with other impurities onto the me tal surface ('surface impurity cementation'), Theoretical calculations for the minimum content of Sn and In in the gallium, after chemical c leaning, were conducted. Good agreement between theoretical and experi mental results was obtained. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.