In this study, the refinement of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) derived from chemical vapor decomposition is investigated. An ultrasonic pretreatment method is employed to disentangle carbon and metal impurities intertwined with MWCNTs. The pretreated MWCNTs exhibit a marginal decrease in C–O/C = O content from 8.9 to 8.8%, accompanied by a 2.5% increase in sp3 carbon content, indicating a mildly destructive pretreatment approach. Subsequently, selective oxidation by CO2 and hydrochloric acid etching are utilized to selectively remove carbon impurities and residual metal, respectively. The resulting yield of intact MWCNTs is approximately 85.65 wt.%, signifying a 19.91% enhancement in the one-way yield of pristine MWCNTs. Notably, the residual metal content experiences a substantial reduction from 9.95 ± 2.42 wt.% to 1.34 ± 0.06 wt.%, representing a 15.68% increase in the removal rate. These compelling findings highlight the potential of employing a mild purification process for MWCNTs production, demonstrating promising application prospects.

HF purification performance of an ion exchange membrane(IEM) was evaluated with 0.5% HF spiked with 10ppb of Fe, Ni and Cu nitrates. The result show that after less than five turnovers through an IEM, the metallic impurity concentration drops below 1ppb. The decrease rate can be fitted to a model assuming the experimental tanks to be continuously stirred tank reaction and that the metallic impurity concentration after the IEM is a function of the single-pass purification efficiency of the membrane, the concentration before purification and the metals desorbed form the IEM. The Concentration after purification was investigated up to a cumulative Fe loading of 300ppb in the 23 liter recirculated loop. It increases linearly vs. cumulative loading and can be explained by the Langmuir theory resulting in a purification efficiency at the equilibrium of close to 99.5% in this loading regime.

We used Cu as a representative of metals to be directly adsorbed on the bare Si surface and studied its removal DHF, DHF-H2O2 and BHF solution. It has been found that Cu ion in DHF adheres on every Si wafer surface that we used in our study (n, p, n+, p+) especially on the n+-Si surface. The DHF-H2O2 solution is found to be effective in removing metals featuring high electronegativity such as Cu from the p-Si and n-Si wafers. Even when the DHF-H2O2 solution has Cu ions at the concentration of 1ppm, the solution is found effective in cleaning the wafer. In the case the n+-Si and p+-Si wafers, however, their surfaces get contaminated with Cu When Cu ion of 10ppb remains in the DHF-H2O2 solution. When BHF is used, Cu in BHF is more likely to contaminate the n+-Si wafer. It is also revealed that the surfactant added to BHF improve wettability onto p-Si, n-Si and p+-Si wafer surface. This effect of the surfactant, however, is not observed on the n+-Si wafer and is increased when it is immersed in the DHF-H2O2 solution for 10min. The rate of the metallic contamination on the n+-Si wafer is found to be much higher than on the other Si wafers. In order to suppress the metallic contamination on every type of Si surface below 1010atoms/cm2, the metallic concentration in ultra pure water and high-purity DHF which is employed at the final stage of the cleaning process must be lowered below the part per trillion level. The DHF-H2O2 solution, however, degrades surface roughness on the substrate with the n+ and p+ surfaces. In order to remove metallic impurities on these surfaces, there is no choice at present but to use the NH4OH-H2O2-H2O and HCl-H2O2-H2O cleaning.

리모트 수소 플라즈마를 이용하여 Si 기판 위의 구리 오염의 제거 효과에 관하여 조사하였다. 최적의 공정 조건을 찾기 위하여 Si 기판을 1ppm CuCI2 표준 화학 용액으로 인위적으로 오염시킨 후 rf power와 세정시간, 거리 (수소플라즈마 중심에서 Si 기판표면까지의 거리)등의 공정 변수를 변화시키며 리모트 수소 플라즈마 세정을 실시하였다. 리모트 수소 플라즈마 세정 후 Si 표면의 분석을 위하여 TXRF(total x-ray reflection fluorescence)와 AFM(atomic force microscope)측정을 실시하였다. 리모트 수소 플라즈마 세정이 Cu의 제거에 효과적이며 Si 표면의 거칠기에 나쁜 영향을 주지 않음을 TXRF와 AFM 분석결과로부터 알 수 있었다. Cu 불순물의 흡착 메커니즘은 산화 환원 전위 이론으로 설명될 수 있으며, Cu 불순물의 제거 메커니즘은 XPS(x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy)분석결과를 근거로 하여 다음과 같이 설명할 수 있다. :먼저 Cu 이온이 Si 표면에 흡착되어 화학적 산화막을 생성한다. 그 다음, 수소 플라즈마 중의 반응성이 강한 수소이온이 이 산화막을 분해시켜 제거하며 Cu 불순물은 산화막이 제거될 때 함께 제거된다.