We are doing plasma physics experiments with decaborane, which dissociates when we fire the device. The chamber is stainless steel and we have copper electrodes. Ideally we want a gas that can be used every few shots and that would cary the boron away. We would prefer not t have to open the chamber to clean it.
Do you know the form of the material formed? Amounts? While plasma is running? If decaborane left, any reactive gas will produce a solid material. If the decaborane reacted in the plasma, you may never get it out. If we are just talking micro levels of airborne material, I would try argon.
We really need more detail.
We will probably fill to a couple of torr. We know most of the decaborane will break up and the boron sticks to all surfaces. So we need to remove perhaps a fith of a gram per shot, maybe 100 micrograms per cm^2. My tense was ambiguous in the last post, but the series with decaborane has not yet begun. It will in about 6 months.
Without the details of the system, I really can't help more. I'd just be guessing.
What details do you need? We have a 10 cm radius vaccum chamber 30 cm long and we pulse 1-2 MA of curent between co-axial electrodes for 2 microseconds. The device is called a dense plasma focus. The chamber is filled before the shot and evacuated after. The plasma betwen the electrodes is completley ionized and so is most of the rest in the chamber. Would it be better if I called you?
Sorry, could not call then. How about Monday? What time would be good?
This post apparently didn't take. After I got which type of plasma we were dealing with, I did some checking. If you go to the forums on focusfusion (.org), there is a good discussion on decaborane. I really can't add anything to that discussion, so there is no need to call. My only other thought was to use an argon flush after each run. However, without knowing the form the boron ends up in, my guess is that no gas will help. You are just in for some trial and error, but if you get polymeric species, it is just going to take cleaning.
I may be an optimist, but I doubt polymers will from as the plasma cools. I think we will end up with pure boron stuck to the surfaces. Isn't there a way to clean that up with a gas?
None, unless you are just physically blowing it out. That is why I suggested trying argon. It may at least reduce the cleaning.
I really think it needs to be clearer what the material really is made of. For example, could we introduce a gas or even water that would cause things like boron oxides to form. THe are not gas flushable, but probably easier to clean out than boron metal.
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