Etnom: The Thin-Film of choice for Petrochemical Analysis

Spectroscopists, Chemists and Lab technicians have tough jobs performing elemental analysis on many different types of materials. One of the toughest materials is in the Petrochemical field. The crude oils, gasolines, diesel fuels contain aromatic and/or aliphatic hydrocarbons that tend to attack thin-film sample supports.  This can be identified by thin-film sagging or bulging, slight leaking, to actually rupturing and loosing all of the contents of the sample cell, as might be experienced with Mylar^® and Polypropylene. Additionally, the sagging of the thin-film leads to inconsistent results. As the thin-film sags, it becomes closer to the detection system, thus artificially increasing the intensity. This is sometimes referred to as 'Thin-Film Loading'.

Chemplex^® recognised this issue for the Petrochemical field and developed the Etnom^® thin-film sample support. Etnom^® has the unique property that when exposed to these aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons not only does it resist it, but it gets stronger. There are no thin-film loading effects and the Etnom^® becomes more taught and the samples can be measured longer for more consistent results. Etnom^® is available in thicknesses ranging from 1.5µm through 3.0µm with a companion product, Zythene^®, with similar characteristics to Etnom^® with a thickness of 6.0µm.

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