Borate Fluxes and Chemicals
Quality without compromise! Why settle for less when the best costs no more?
Fusion is an extremely effective method when preparing oxides, cement, carbonates, ceramic, slag, glass, silica, sulfides, bauxite, fluorides, polymers, catalysts, pure metals, ferroalloys, mining and geological samples for analysis by XRF, AA and ICP.
Fusion does not consist of heating the sample to its melting temperature, but rather having the oxidized samples dissolved into a solvent, generally a lithium borate flux. Therefore, the temperature required for preparing all samples should be slightly higher than the melting temperature of the flux but not exceed 1050 °C. Lithium metaborate (LiBO2, m.p. 850°C) reacts with acidic oxides, e.g. SiO2, and lithium tetraborate (Li2B4O7, m.p. 920°C) reacts with basic oxides, e.g. CaO. In practice, a flux is composed of various proportions of these two salts.
Recent research has shown that it is easier to make a glass disk when the appropriate flux composition is selected: this avoids crystallization, considerably reduces the incidence of glass sticking to the platinum mold and disks cracking and finally, produces homogenous and stable glass disks. For solutions, lithium metaborate is the best flux for preparing practically all types of samples as it crystallizes faster during cooling, therefore allowing the melt to dissolve easier in diluted acid.
1. Key Features of Claisse Fluxes
Claisse fluxes are manufactured through a unique process for unmatched purity and physical properties. They are:
- Fused and homogenous: Claisse borate fluxes consist of homogenous, spherical and vitreous particles. Each particle has the same composition. If a flux is not homogenous, segregation will affect the analytical accuracy of your analysis.
- 99.98+% pure and 99.995+% ultra pure: Claisse pure borate fluxes are guaranteed to contain less than 10 ppm of 15 selected elements. For ultra pure fluxes, the level of contamination is carefully controlled and analyzed for 30 selected elements and a detailed certificate of analysis is supplied with each order. Claisse ultra pure fluxes are clearly the purest on the market.
- High density: Claisse borate fluxes have a density of 1.4 g/cm3 as compared to 0.5 g/cm3 for powder fluxes. They never fill more than half of the crucible, even when fusions for large 40-mm disks are made, thus eliminating all risk of overflowing during agitation.
- Water free: Claisse fluxes have the lowest water content on the market (< 0.05%).
- Non-hygroscopic: because of their vitreous nature, Claisse borate fluxes are not hygroscopic. A major problem with absorbed humidity is loss of accuracy in your analytical results because of the induced error on the mass of flux weighed, therefore affecting the sample/flux ratio.
- 99.95% Non-hygroscopic: Since they are fused, Claisse borate fluxes are free of water. Their atmospheric absorption of H2O is less than 0.05%.
- Controlled Granulometry: Claisse fluxes are 100% less than 500 µm and contain no dust. Due to electrostatic forces, dusty fluxes stick to the weighing pan, the funnel and the crucible wall, resulting in a loss of flux, lower analytical accuracy and the formation of glass droplets on the wall of the crucible.
- Non-wetting agent integrated: Claisse fluxes are available with integrated Lithium bromide (LiBr) or Liththium iodide (LiI). Our experience has shown that the amount of non-wetting agent (NWA) added to the fusion by the analyst is not constant and this affects the analytical accuracy of the analysis. With the new fluxes that have the NWA integrated, the same amount of NWA is invariably added during fusion. In addition, these fluxes are easier to use because you do not have to add the NWA separately during the fusion process.
- Outstanding fluidity: Claisse borate fluxes are easier to handle and weigh.
- Available in Custom Blends: Claisse offers exclusively designed fluxes for your particular applications. Tell us your needs, and we'll supply your custom blend flux.
- Available from stock except for custom blends: If you are out of stock or have an urgent need, we will promptly ship your requested flux.
- Consistent quality: At Claisse, fine chemistry production is truly an exact science, starting with the discovery of a revolutionary new production technique making it possible to make reproducible batches each and every time. No need to stock large quantities of flux. No need for recalibration for each order of flux. With Claisse, you can always expect the same high quality of flux.
2. Flux Catalog
| Catalog Number | Flux |
|---|---|
| C-0600-00 | LiT, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0600-10 | LiT, Powder Flux, Pure, 500 g |
| C-0600-60 | LiT/LiBr 99.50/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0600-63 | LiT/LiBr 99.00/1.00, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0600-70 | LiT/LiI 99.50/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0601-00 | LiT, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0601-10 | LiT, Powder Flux, Ultra Pure, 500 g |
| C-0601-60 | LiT/LiBr 99.50/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0601-70 | LiT/LiI 99.50/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0610-00 | LiM, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0610-10 | LiM, Powder Flux, Pure, 500 g |
| C-0610-66 | LiM/LiBr 98.50/1.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0611-00 | LiM, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0611-66 | LiM/LiBr 98.50/1.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0620-00 | LiT/LiM 50/50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0620-60 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 49.75/49.75/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0620-63 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 49.50/49.50/1.00, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0620-70 | LiT/LiM/LiI 49.75/49.75/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0621-00 | LiT/LiM 50/50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0621-60 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 49.75/49.75/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0621-70 | LiT/LiM/LiI 49.75/49.75/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0630-00 | Sodium Tetraborate, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0640-00 | LiT/LiM 67/33, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0640-60 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 66.67/32.83/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0640-70 | LiT/LiM/LiI 66.67/32.83/0.50, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0641-00 | LiT/LiM 67/33, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0641-60 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 66.67/32.83/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0641-70 | LiT/LiM/LiI 66.67/32.83/0.50, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0642-00 | LiT/LiM 80/20, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0650-00 | LiT/LiM 35/65 (12/22), Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0650-60 | LiT/LiM/LiBr 34.83/64.67/0.50 (11.94/21.89/0.17), Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0651-00 | LiT/LiM 35/65 (12/22), Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0660-00 | LiT/LiM 75/25, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0661-00 | LiT/LiM 75/25, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0670-00 | LiT/LiC 90/10, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0671-00 | LiT/LiC 90/10, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0680-00 | LiT/LiF 90/10, Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0685-00 | Boric Acid, Ultra Pure, 1 kg |
| C-0690-00 | LiC, Ultra Pure, 500 g |
3. Oxidizers and Non-Wetting Agents Catalog
| Catalog Number | Flux |
|---|---|
| C-0700-00 | Potasium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 100 g |
| C-0700-01 | Potasium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 250 g |
| C-0701-00 | Potasium Iodide, NWA - Solution, 15 ml Bottle |
| C-0701-01 | Potasium Iodide, NWA - Solution, 15 ml Bottle (10-Pack) |
| C-0710-00 | Lithium Bromide, NWA - Crystal, 100 g |
| C-0710-01 | Lithium Bromide, NWA - Crystal, 250 g |
| C-0711-00 | Lithium Bromide, NWA - Solution, 15 ml Bottle |
| C-0711-01 | Lithium Bromide, NWA - Solution, 15 ml Bottle (10-Pack) |
| C-0720-00 | Lithium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 100 g |
| C-0720-01 | Lithium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 250 g |
| C-0740-00 | Sodium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 100 g |
| C-0740-01 | Sodium Iodide, NWA - Crystal, 250 g |
| C-0800-00 | Lithium Fluoride, Crystal, 100 g |
| C-0800-01 | Lithium Fluoride, Crystal, 250 g |
| C-0900-00 | Lithium Nitrate (LiNo3) 500 g |
| C-0910-00 | Sodium Nitrate (NaNo3) 500 g |
Claisse Highlights
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