SBIR Phase I: Chemical Amplification for Detection of Ultra Low Levels of Total Organic Carbon

半导体制造和制药行业需要9860157的超纯水。一个极其重要的水质参数是溶解有机碳含量。电子工业目前将半导体制造工艺水中的总有机碳(TOC)含量限制在10ug/L。目前可用于监测这一水平的TOC的大多数分析仪器使用的是对溶解的HC03-/CO2=物种的特定电导检测，这些物种是由溶解有机物的光氧化或联合化学氧化和光氧化产生的。我们提出了一种可以通过化学放大电导信号将TOC监测仪器的灵敏度提高高达两个数量级的方法的研究。拟议的技术是基于将溶解的有机物种氧化产生的二氧化碳通过半透膜传输到烷醇胺溶液中，在该溶液中与二氧化碳发生化学反应形成离子化合物。TOC检测方法的成功开发提供了比使用现有仪器可实现的检测下限低得多的检测下限，预计将导致设计、制造和销售用于支持半导体和制药行业的高级一代超纯水表征仪器。新的检测器将适用于实验室仪器和连续流动过程分析仪。

9860157 Ultra-pure water is required for the semiconductor fabrication and pharmaceutical industries. One extremely important water quality parameter is dissolved organic carbon content. The electronics industry currently limits total organic carbon (TOC) content of semiconductor fabrication process waters to 10 ug/L. The majority of analytical instruments which are currently available to monitor TOC at these levels utilize specific conductance detection of the dissolved HC03-/CO2= species which result from the photo-oxidation or combined chemical oxidation and photo-oxidation of dissolved organics. We propose an investigation of methods which can be used to improve sensitivity of TOC monitoring instruments by a factor of up to two orders of magnitude by chemically amplifying the conductivity signal. The proposed technology is based upon the transport of C02, resulting from the oxidation of dissolved organic species, across a semipermeable membrane into a alkanolamine solution where ionic compounds are formed by chemical reaction with C02-. Successful development of a TOC detection methodology which provides substantially lower limits of detection than can be achieved using currently available instrumentation is expected to result in the design, manufacture, and marketing of an advanced generation of instruments for ultra-pure water characterization in support of semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. The new detector will be suitable for use in both laboratory instruments and continuous flow process analyzers.