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Alumina for MS rod/lens cleaning

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:37 pm
by JMB
I used alumina/glycerol for many years in my Mass Spec lab, but never took a note of the grit size.
Can somebody enlighten me?

Regards,
MOTOBALL

Re: Alumina for MS rod/lens cleaning

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:00 pm
by James_Ball
I still have a few of the never ending containers of Microgrit WCA 15 (1kg) that Agilent used to ship with every MS they sold and I looked it up on the Microgrit website but couldn't find any spec on the particle size. I am assuming that the 15 would reference 15um, but not sure.

I notice that now Agilent only ships 100g bottles of it, and those still last forever for cleaning MS sources lol.

It has to be a very very fine grit because the website lists one of the uses is in polishing glass optics for things like telescopes.

We always make a paste with it by mixing with Citranox, which washes away easily with water.

Re: Alumina for MS rod/lens cleaning

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 10:57 pm
by JMB
James,

Thanks for the info.

Regards,
JMB