Chemical lab
Chemical analysis and materials characterisation related to electronic components, primarily electrolytic capacitors
Description
The CIE Chemical Lab is dedicated to chemical analysis and materials characterisation related to electronic components, primarily electrolytic capacitors.The main equipment in this lab comprises of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ion chromatography (IC) systems, automatic titrator, pH/conductivity meter. Moreover, the lab has equipment for testing of electrolytic capacitor foils according to the industrial standards.
The chromatography systems allow for effective separation of complex chemical mixtures as well as fast, sensitive and selective determination of the separated species. Both systems (HPLC and IC) can be coupled to a mass-spectrometry detector which allows for reliable identification of unknown chemical species.
The automatic titrator is used for precise determination of water and selected chemical species in liquid samples.
The pH/conductivity meter serves for determination of pH (acidity) and electrical conductivity of liquids. If combined with ion-selective electrodes, it can also be used for selective determination of certain inorganic ions in solutions.
Services for companies
- Reliability testing and failure analysis of electrolytic capacitors and other electronic components
- Investigation of electrochemistry-related failures of discrete components
- Identification and quantification of unknown constituents in, e.g., capacitor electrolytes
- Help with design and process FMEA
- Support at IATF 16949 certification
- Help in supplier selection process
- Support product and process audits
- Special electrolyte development.
Technical specification of equipment
- Thermo Fisher UltiMate 3000 HPLC chromatography system equipped with manual injection valve, gradient pump, vacuum degasser, column thermostat and assortment of analytical columns. Detectors: variable wavelength UV-Vis absorption detector (wavelength range: 190 to 900 nm, sampling rate: 200 Hz), refractive index detector (refractive index range: 1.00 to 1.75 RIU) and mass-spectrometry detector (single quadrupole mass-spectrometer; mass range: 10 to 1250 m/z with unit mass resolution).
- Thermo Fisher Dionex Integrion IC chromatography system equipped with manual injection valve, isocratic pump, column thermostat, assortment of analytical columns and conductivity detector (conductivity range: 0 to 15000 µS/cm, sampling rate: 100 Hz).
- Metrohm Titrando 888 automatic titrator with accessories for volumetric Karl Fischer titration. Potentiometry measuring range: -13 to 20 pH, -1200 to + 1200 mV; resolution: 0.001 pH, 0.1 mV; accuracy: ± 0.003 pH, ± 0.2 mV. Dosing resolution of the burette: 0.25 to 1 µL. Water content range determined by Karl Fischer titration: 100 ppm to 100%.
- Hanna Instruments HI-5522 pH/conductivity meter. pH range: -2 to 20 pH; resolution: 0.001 pH; accuracy: ± 0.002 pH. Conductivity range: 0 to 1000 mS/cm; resolution: 0.001 µS/cm (for the low conductivity range); accuracy: ± 1% of reading (±0.01 µS/cm).