Q: You have several different products in your Clean Chemistry line: acid purification, trace cleaning, closed-vessel digestion and evaporation. What do they all have in common?

A: All of the products in our Clean Chem line are designed to help you control your analytical blank, the "Achilles heel" of trace analysis, and to improve your detection limit. Reagent purity, cleanliness of the materials used in sample preparation, the laboratory environment, and the skill of the analyst are all factors that contribute to contamination. Each of those factors can be minimized with our technology.

Q: Why would I want to make my own high-purity acids when I can just buy them?

A: Making your own acids is much less expensive than purchasing them from an outside supplier. Depending on your individual rate of use, it may take just a few months for a sub-boiling distillation unit to pay for itself. See our duoPUR savings calculator to analyze your individual situation.

Also, you will have the added advantage of being able to re-purify your contaminated acids, rather than downgrading them.

Q: Why use acid vapor cleaning when I can just soak my lab vessels in acid?

A: With acid steam cleaning, any trace metal contamination found in the acid remains in the lower reservoir, and does not come in contact with the items being cleaned. Also, since the cleaning process takes place in a sealed container, the cleaned items are protected from airborne contamination—both during and after cleaning.

Q: How can I minimze contamination from the laboratory environment?

A: Microwave digestion and evaporation take place in a closed, controlled environment. This prevents airborne contamination from entering during sample preparation.

Q: How can I minimize the effects of analyst interaction with the sample?

A: Microwave sample preparation is computer controlled. The analyst needs to decide on a temperature-vs.-time profile only once for a given reaction, and then the labstation's process control sensors and software will reproduce that method reliably, as many times as desired.

Q: How else can I improve my detection limit?

A: We provide high-purity quartz and Teflon vessel inserts, to decrease your solvent volume. This reduces the dilution factor, and thereby lowers your detection limit.