I am cleaning quartz grains extracted from a granite with a 4% HF/2% HNO3 solution for about 40 hours.
I was wondering whether a buffered solution would be slower but leave a cleaner surface as reported in the litterature.
I am using HNO3 partly to change the fluorides to nitrates, but I am not quite sure whether this is really the case? the etching of granites quartz grains is often reported as being done using a HF solution with HNO3 which comforted my choice, but without real support.
I am not a chemist but a geologist and the mechanism of fluoride etching seems quite nebulous to me!
If BOE would be more efficient ( though slower?) , how would I prepare the etch solution from concentrated HF and ammonium fluoride to ensure that 4% HF is kept through the etch time. This percentage is the most 'popular" percentage for cleaning quartz grains minimising the loss of quartz.
Will the addition of the 2% HNO3 affect the BOE, are they compatible, and is that HNO3 necessary?
A lot of questions that I tried to resolve without much success.
Thank you for your help!
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