Purification of Cu by hydrogen plasma-arc zone melting and characterization of trace impurities by secondary ion mass spectrometry

Purification of 4N (99.99%) and 6N (99.9999%) purity Cu rods by hydrogen plasma-arc zone melting was carried out. Weight loss in the 4N and 6N Cu rods as a function of number of zone refined passes revealed a higher rate of impurity removal by vaporization in 4N Cu when compared to 6N Cu. Purification effect was studied by analyzing major impurities like Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni and Fe by O₂⁺ ions and C, O, As, Cl, P and S by Cs⁺ ion sources using secondary ion mass spectrometry. A remarkable decrease of Si, Ti and Fe impurity concentrations in Cu at x/L = 0.03 after 10 zone passes was observed, but no similar purification effect along the remaining length of the zone refined copper rod was observed. Mg, Se and Ca in the Cu rods were reduced faster by a high evaporation effect due to P_i/P_Cu > 10². On the other hand, removal of O, C, S and Se was expectedly dominated by vaporization in the form of H₂O, CH_4, H₂S, and H₂Se through thermodynamically favored reactions. The overall segregation rate of the individual impurity elements was decreased with an increase in the purity from 4N to 6N of Cu rods. SIMS analysis of trace impurities was successfully carried out on HPZM Cu for quantitative estimation.