Examination of clean room aerosol particle composition by total reflection X-ray analysis and electron probe microanalysis

Abstract

Aerosol particles with a minimum diameter of 0.1 μm were sampled with an impactor at various places in three class 1000 clean-room complexes. The elemental composition of the integral samples was determined by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) analysis. With this new application and a combination of tried and tested sampling and analysing methods it was possible to detect elements in the pg m−3 range in clean rooms. The elemental composition of single particles was analysed by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). Furthermore, EPMA elemental maps can yield further valuable information on the homogeneous structure of particles and quantitative particle analysis can lead to respective compound identification.