2002 Volume 45 Issue 4 Pages 372-376
Supercritical fluid (SCF) CO2 has been employed for cleaning of organic contamination on the surface. However, the cleaning rate was 2% at 25 MPa in SCFCO2 alone. Oxygen (O2) was added to base SCFCO2 to improve the rate by utilizing oxidizing effect. Aluminum sample is φ5 × t1. After a sample was cleaned in the fluid with 02, the surface was analyzed using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Assuming that C1s peak in XPS spectra represents organic contamination, the contamination rate is defined as the ratio of area of C1s peak and summation of the area of C1s, O1s, and Al2p peaks. The cleaning rate at 55°C for 30 minute cleaning was 25% at 2030 MPa in SCFCO2with O2 of 1.5 MPa. The cleaning at the constant ratio of O2 pressure against SCFCO2 pressure showed that cleaning rate is approximately proportional to the oxygen molecule number. The addition of oxygen is primarily effective on cleaning of the organic contamination, where base SCFCO2 showed secondary effect on cleaning.