Maintenance and care of

platinum-ware
• Normal use and maintenance

• Acid cleaning

• Polishing

• Know your sample

 Normal use and maintenance

Molds
- Results are directly affected by the surface

- Polishing schedule
- Surface deformation with time and
temperature (refurbish tools)

Crucibles
- Less care than mold
- Thinner than mold (polishing)
- Carry over
- Mouldibles
 Acid Cleaning
Used for flux residue removal (mainly)

Regular cleaning

-HCl 20% (hot, stir, well rinse)

-Citric acid (hot, sonic bath)
-Blank fusion (flux and NWA only)

Heavy cleaning

-HCl conc. (hot,stir) followed by

HNO3 conc. (hot,stir)
Never mix HCL and HNO3 together !! (Aqua Regia)

‘‘Avoid acid vapors during fusion, always well rinse’’

 Polishing
Commercial polisher ($$$)

Rotating tool (DREMEL)

-Alumina brush tip 320 Mesh

-Foam pad tip 575 Mesh (diamond paste)
-Foam pad tip 1000 Mesh (diamond paste)
-Cotton wool 8000 Mesh (diamond paste)
-Cotton wool 60 000 Mesh (diamond paste)

Always depending of damages to platinum, you can start below

or over Mesh size
Polishing

Before After
The best precaution ever;
Know what you fuse !

Low melting point alloy with platinum

(Pt-As 597˚C, Pt-Si 986˚C, Pt-P 588˚C)

Warning metallic elements

- Al, Ti, Si, Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn, ...
- Precious metals (Ag, Au,...)
- Ferroalloys (FeSi, FeTi, FeCr, ...)
- Carbide (SiC)

Oxidize your sample

- Preheating
- Liquid oxidation with acid
- Solid oxidizers
 Conclusion

Always better to ask help than to ruin your brand new

platinum crucible in the first fusion cycle (real story!!!)

We (fusion suppliers) are also there to share our

experiences and knowledge

Don’t forget that you work with a few thousands

dollars of precious metal everyday

Benoit Bouchard, Chemist

Application specialist
www.katanax.com